


The Daughter's Captain

by crazygirlne



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action, Adventure, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-04-05 02:04:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 24,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4161513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazygirlne/pseuds/crazygirlne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Boy meets girl. Boy turns out to have been made immortal by girl’s father’s sort-of girlfriend. You know the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter Summary: Jack and Jenny meet and immediately find trouble. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: I’ve been wanting to write this pairing for ages but just couldn’t find the right story for them. After some prodding from followers and friends, I finally focused a little better and found it. 
> 
> I’m not doing this my usual way, so I can’t really say how long this is going to be. Your guess is as good as mine :) My updating schedule will be… not scheduled. My inability to leave a work unfinished means there shouldn’t be ridiculous waits, though, and most of the next chapter is already done.
> 
> This won’t have graphic violence; focusing on how people are hurt makes me physically ill. It will, though, have some violence because it’s Jack and Jenny and sort of action-adventure.
> 
> Beta: GoingToTheTardis

The air rushed from his lungs as he landed against the pavement.

"That was uncalled for," he muttered, bringing himself to his feet. "You didn't even buy me a drink first," he added, raising his voice even though the intended recipient wouldn't be able to hear.

He dusted off his pants before noticing a few passersby staring at him. He grinned, turning on the charm.

"Never piss off someone who's got an interplanetary teleportation device in the basement," he said, approaching the nearest humanoid, hand extended. "Hi, Captain Jack Harkness." The blue-skinned, green-eyed alien blinked in return. "Wouldn't mind telling me where I am, would you?" The native blinked again. "You don't speak a lick of English, do ya?"

Jack maintained his grin as he looked around for a hint of where he might have been sent by the irate female he'd probably seen the last of.

"I speak English," came a feminine voice from behind him, a distinctly British accent. As Jack turned, the alien he'd been speaking to ran off, along with his friends.

In front of him was a petite blonde with just the right amount of curves. Not that there was really a wrong amount of curves, not as far as the former Time Agent was concerned. She wore a tight t-shirt and tighter pants, a military style belt and boots.

“Hi there,” he said, once more extending his hand in greeting. The woman smiled at him, almost a smirk, as she took his warm hand in her cool one. “Captain Jack Harkness. And you are?”

“Jenny,” she answered, shaking his hand firmly. “Not really the time to be flirting, though.”

“Really?” he asked, keeping his disagreement to himself. Mostly. “Why’s that?”

She looked pointedly over his shoulder. “Humans aren’t exactly popular here on Xark’nith. Tend to be thrown in cages by the likes of _them_.” She nodded in the direction she looked, and he turned far enough to see a few of the locals rushing toward them, weapons drawn, shouting things in a language he wasn’t familiar with. He turned back to Jenny, but before he could speak, she grabbed his hand and grinned.

“Run,” she said, and he found himself returning the smile as they broke into a sprint, ducking between nearby buildings, laughing as they rounded a corner of the maze-like city. He felt a thrill at being on an alien planet for the first time in so long, even if the circumstances weren’t necessarily what he’d have chosen. Not first, anyway.

“You’re seriously fast,” he said after a minute of evasion, angry shouts still chasing them through the city. “It doesn’t even look like you’re trying.”

“Love to run,” she said, slowing as they came to another intersection in the complex maze of alleyways. “This way.” Jenny darted to the left, Jack starting to feel the strain of keeping up as his legs cramped.

“I don’t really ever run intentionally,” he said between breaths, “but it always happens anyway.”

She glanced back at him, ponytail flying, her face lit with her enjoyment. “That’s the best kind of running, the kind you weren’t planning on.”

Her speech was completely unaffected by their exertion, and Jack’s mind wandered to other activities that might benefit from mutual stamina. His thoughts were interrupted by some colorful curse words in at least five non-terrestrial languages, plus Spanish.

“You fluent in all those,” he asked in one of them while they came to a stop in front of a brick wall, “or just in the curse words?”

“I’m not really fluent in Thalian,” she answered, looking around them and then letting go of his hand and backing a few steps away from the wall, “but the others, yes.” She looked at him, eyes shining. “Only one way out,” she said, facing the wall again and running at it full speed.

Jack found himself gaping as the little blonde ran several steps straight up the wall, grabbed onto the roof of the building, then climbed on top before peering down at him.

“You coming?” She asked, expression triumphant, hands on her hips.

“I’d love to,” he said, looking behind him and then turning fully to face the men ran in and then stopped, panting, at the entrance to this particular alleyway, “but I’m a bit rusty on my wall climbing.” He held up open hands to show the hostile aliens. “No chance we can resolve this peacefully, is there?” he asked.

Their response was immediate, unanimous, and decidedly unfriendly as they charged into range, and Jack pulled his own gun from its holster.

“It was nice knowing you, Blondie,” he called upward, aiming his weapon at a kneecap; he didn’t want to aim to kill, especially before he knew whether their weapons were lethal. Finding that out might’ve been a better thing to use his breath for than a mild flirtation.

Then again, it wasn’t like a flirtation was ever really wasted.

He fired as the first attacker came into range, the man going down with a shout. Before Jack could take aim again, the second fired, and a severe spike of pain was followed by an all-too-familiar feeling that answered rather definitively whether the weapon had been lethal.

~O~O~O~

The dark-haired, blue-eyed man in the military jacket went down after he was shot, and Jenny ducked low on the rooftop, having learned quickly that Xark’nithians had difficulty looking upward and rarely did so. She heard Jack’s weapon clatter to the ground, and the native who’d shot him spoke to his companions.

“He’s dead. Not breathing.” Jenny spared a moment to be grateful, not for the first time, that she was good with languages. She’d only been on the planet for a few long weeks, but she’d already managed to pick up most of the dialect. “Did you see where the other one went?”

“Was a bit busy being shot,” came a second voice, laced with pain.

“She got away again,” said the third. “Come on, let’s dispose of this one.”

“I need help getting out of here before the cops show,” said the second. “Just leave him.”

“And end up getting tossed in jail for improper disposal of animal remains? Not likely,” answered the first. “You lean on Larxixnix and he’ll carry the arms. I’ll get the feet. We gotta be quick.”

Jenny risked leaning forward far enough to peer at the trio as they gathered up the body. She knew that she should leave, find somewhere safer, maybe finally get the needed part she’d been searching for to get back off this planet and to somewhere a bit friendlier. Instead, she found herself unable to leave Jack behind.

She was simultaneously repelled by and attracted to him. It was as if something was very wrong about him, but it was outweighed by a feeling of _right_. She’d figured out quickly enough that she could almost feel connections sometimes, possibilities for people or events, and when she’d seen Jack, she’d felt like they had a connection that both brought them together and pushed them apart.

Unsure whether that meant there were opposing possibilities for them or whether something else was going on, as well as unsure what a human was doing so obviously out in public in a dangerous location, she’d approached him. The feeling of connection hadn’t ended with his death.

As she watched them carry his body from the alley, their progress slow and limping, she felt herself pulled forward again. She walked along the rooftops, careful not to make noise, until the trio stopped in front of a door. They set down Jack’s body in order to unlock it, and Jenny felt her eyes widen.

Jack had moved.

She looked more closely and saw that he was breathing again, or perhaps hadn’t stopped breathing in the first place. Their attackers hadn’t seemed to notice either the unsteady rise and fall of his chest or the brief twitch of his hand.

Jenny weighed her options for a few seconds. With one man wounded, she could probably free Jack with very little trouble, but he’d just been shot, and the chances of his being able to run to safety were slim, no matter how beautifully he’d run earlier. She could probably throw him over her shoulder, but that would rule out the uneven rooftops, and she’d be quite conspicuous making her way to the abandoned home she’d been staying in.

Waiting until dark would be the safest way to transport him since the city was quiet and unpatrolled after sunset, but Jenny didn’t know what they planned to do with his body. If they disposed of him immediately, he might not survive long enough for her rescue. She’d have to try to save him before they took him inside, as they were already moving to do.

She shifted her weight, ready to jump, then froze as a large group came around a corner, chatting about their respective days. The men threw Jack inside and pushed their wounded in behind him, standing guard at the door until the group had passed. They opened the door again as the others moved out of sight, and she heard the wounded man speak.

“You’ll never believe this. This guy’s still alive.”

“Impossible,” said the first. “I checked. It’s not something I’m ever wrong about. He was dead.”

“Well, he isn’t now,” chimed the third, Larxixix. “Not like he could come back to life.”

“Just shut up. Come on. Don’t have to hide him if he isn’t dead. Let’s take him to the Tower.”

Jenny settled back on her heels as the door shut behind them.

The Tower, contrary to its name, was actually underground, accessible through the homes of the affluent of the city, and well guarded, even after dark. Jenny had been inside before, but she hadn’t been able to explore as well as she liked before she’d had to get out.

The Tower housed the city’s undesirables, from species deemed unfit for society to those unable to pay their bills. Those violent were dealt with immediately rather than left to take up space in the city’s lockup. Jenny had been trying to find a way to free them, if she could, while trying to repair her ship, but she’d been so far unsuccessful.

She made her way back to her temporary home, glancing wistfully at the ship parked precariously on the roof before she went inside. She retrieved the map of the underground system and lay it out on the table in the main room, studying it once more for any potential weaknesses.

Finally, she found a possible route, a way to reach the cells without being spotted, a narrow ventilation shaft that was marked only lightly. If it was really there, and if it was wide enough, she’d have to climb down several stories, then make her way back up with at least Jack in tow, freeing the rest of the prisoners in the process.

She found herself grinning. She did love a challenge.

She nodded decisively at the map, mentally tracing her route one more time, then rolled it back up and put it away next to a translated version of Earth’s _Rapunzel_.

“Right then,” she told herself, “time to climb the Tower and rescue the princess.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jenny comes to the rescue, and Jack flirts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s some deviation from Torchwood canon, and it will eventually deviate from Doctor Who, too, since there does have to be an eventual reunion, yeah? Which has some timey-wimey potential effects that’ll be a blast to explore.
> 
> Beta: GoingToTheTardis

Jack groaned as he came fully awake in a jail cell.

He sat up and reached to check his weapons. The gun he’d been using was gone, of course; his captors had rudely decided to avoid setting his loaded weapon next to him on the cot. His backup, though, was still in place, as usual. They’d left him in his clothes, too.

The cell was concrete, made of large, rough bricks, and the door was the standard set of metal bars. From where he sat, he couldn’t see anyone else.

He rubbed his temples. It wasn’t exactly like death was easy, but it was taking him a bit longer than usual to recover from this one. Maybe it was lingering effects from the teleport. He hadn’t been teleporting regularly for nearly a century, after all, and the effects were usually worse without practice. Add in the lack of warning and then the minor matter of being shot to death, and Jack was feeling a little worse for the wear.

He stood and walked to the door of the cell, looking out and seeing no guards in the hall. He could see a couple other cells, but not their occupants. The one directly across from him seemed empty.

Jack studied the locking mechanism on the door. It was relatively simple, as far as these kinds of locks went, but it probably wouldn’t give way to the small weapon he’d been able to retain.

“Anyone out there?” he called through the bars. There was no immediate response. “Probably don’t speak my language, anyway,” he muttered.

Of the technology he missed most from before his last, poorly executed jump through time, a good universal translator topped the list.

He eyed the lock again.

Well, a good translator and maybe the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver.

Torchwood had some great tech, of course, but it was still ages behind what he was used to, and he hadn’t had even the rudimentary translator on him when he’d been investigating before the teleport, knowing his target spoke a language his was fluent in. He might have better gadgets if he’d agreed to work with Torchwood more regularly, but it just hadn’t felt right, and he’d stuck to the occasional freelance work.

He’d had plenty of time to learn languages while hoping to find the Doctor, and he’d absorbed a good number of them. Between that and his fluency in body language, he usually got along fine. When the person he was trying to communicate with was receptive to his advances, things were usually better than fine.

In a jail cell, on a planet he didn’t know, with nobody in sight? Not his best set of circumstances.

Then again, he’d dealt with worse situations, too.

Sighing, he put his gun back out of sight, turned, and started a search of the cell. He found a piece of bedspring he might be able to use to open the lock, but it would be a longshot. His best bet would be to wait and see what was going to happen.

It wasn’t like he didn’t have enough time.

At the sound of footsteps approaching, he turned back to the doorway as one of the locals approached. What had Jenny called them? Xark’nithians.

“Flurxixt snarth rexixith,” the female guard grumbled at him.

“I don’t have a clue what you’re saying,” he said, approaching the guard, disarming grin firmly in place. “Of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t get out of here and enjoy ourselves.”

The guard tensed and scowled, clearly telling him off for his obvious flirtation.

“That’s fine,” said Jack. “Your loss. You can just let me outta here, and we don’t have to do a thing. I’ll just be on my way.”

An unarmed Xark’nithian came through the hallway with a cart of food. He held a tray and looked warily at Jack, then at the guard, without approaching.

“Xart!” The guard gestured with her gun, motioning for Jack to step away from the bars.

He took a single step backward, holding up his hands and watching as the person holding the food put it through the bars at an angle, some sort of clear wrap keeping most of the food in the tiny tray. Jack took a shuffling step forward as the assistant withdrew, pointing his head toward the food but keeping his attention on the guard, who was watching the assistant ready food for the next cell.

The guard had keys on her belt, and she was standing close enough that Jack could reach them if he was subtle enough about it. He slid his hand through the bars and brushed against cool metal before the guard spun around, yelling, aiming her weapon and readying it.

“Okay, okay,” said Jack, backing away again. “I had to try, you understand.”

The guard kept her weapon trained on him until the assistant had finished. Jack waited until they left to approach his food, a black, smelly mush he decided he wasn’t yet hungry enough to eat.

He set it next to his cot and lay down on his back, hands under his head. He found himself wondering about Jenny. There was something about her that attracted him, not that attraction was such an unusual thing for him, but she had something about her, something familiar, maybe, but he was sure he’d remember her if they’d met.

She was something, though. Looks, humor, and ass-kicking all in one tight little package? Hopefully, she’d made it away safely after he’d been taken down.

He sat up again at the sound of quick footsteps and saw the object of his thoughts approaching the jail cell, keys in hand. He joined her as she unlocked the door.

“Hello, Blondie,” he said, turning his charm on full blast. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“I have a name, you know,” she said, her lips pulled up to one side and lessening some of the annoyance in her words. “Might want to use it since I’m the one saving you.”

~O~O~O~

Jack chuckled.

“Okay, then,” he said, his voice dropping ever so slightly. “It’s good seeing you, Jenny.”

Ignoring the way he turned her name into a caress, she rolled her eyes. “Come on, let’s get out of this place.” She opened the cell door, releasing Jack, who looked pretty good for someone who’d been dead or nearly so just hours earlier. “The guard will be coming back through any time now.” _In forty-five point three seconds_ , she specified silently, having quickly tired of the odd reactions her sense of time seemed to spark in people. They didn’t really have time for her to explain that particular ability at the moment.

“Not exactly much here for them to guard,” commented Jack as they began walking briskly past empty cells.

“This isn’t where they keep people, not really, just the ones headed for execution. They keep long-term prisoners elsewhere,” she said. “We’re headed there next.”

“Won’t that have more guards?” he asked.

“Yeah, most likely.” They came to a T in the hallway, and she checked left before they turned right. “Can’t exactly rescue everyone else without risking it, though.”

“So you’re planning a major rescue mission. Right now. Unarmed.” Only slight skepticism tinged his tone. Instead, he sounded… “Oh, I am so turned on right now.”

Jenny laughed in surprise. “Really not the time, Jack. And anyway, I never said I was unarmed. I just don’t use weapons unless they’re needed.”

“I’ll get back to asking where you’re hiding a weapon later,” Jack said, “but what’s the plan here? We get everyone out of their cages, where are they gonna go that the guards won’t just round them up again?”

“We’ll need a diversion,” she said. “One of us can distract the guards while the other unlocks the cells. There are air vents that we can lead the prisoners to, and they lead right back to the surface.”

“And the guards won’t just follow them up?”

She shook her head. “They don’t climb, the locals. They hardly even _look_ up, which is how I got away.”

Jack made a thoughtful noise. “Any ideas why don’t they work with ‘up’?”

“Found a few books that helped answer that for me, after I picked up a bit of the language,” she explained as she checked out another T junction and then kept walking. “Early in their history, they faced a lot of underground predators, so they kept their attention downward, ready to jump away. On top of that, there were these giant birds that would snack on them, but only if they came up close enough to the tree branches.”

“So no moving higher, hmm?” Jack asked.

“Right. As long as they kept their attention and their feet on the earth, they were safe. Once they built cities, they made sure the ground was covered in this thick concrete,” she said, patting a wall, “and they kept the city dense, less ground to cover up.”

“And in the meantime, if we need to escape, we just need to go up.”

“Exactly.” She grinned.

“Okay, then,” he said. “You know where everything is, so I’ll handle the diversion. How much farther ‘til--”

Jenny held up a hand to interrupt him, slipping into military hand signals to indicate that she’d heard a sound, that they were very close, and that they needed to be quiet.

A slight narrowing of his eyes and a decisive nod indicated that he’d understood, and she smiled again before making her way down the hall more carefully, retrieving her weapon and ignoring the feel of Jack’s eyes on her.

She moved almost silently, inherent knowledge combining with years of practice, until she saw a guard’s back in the section she and Jack were approaching. She pointed him out to Jack, who nodded and indicated the start of another hallway across from where the guard stood, then quirked an eyebrow in question.

Jenny nodded again, and Jack signed, using a combination of military signals and other signs to ask a question: _Kiss for good luck?_

Jenny rolled her eyes toward the ceiling, then back down to the smirking captain. She reached for him, using her free hand to pull his face toward hers, planting her lips firmly on his cheek and then suppressing a laugh at his look of surprise. Her eyes darted toward the guard again, then she looked back at Jack and pointed in the direction of the branching hallway.

Jack stood straight, bringing his feet together and giving her a smart salute. Jenny held back another chuckle as he turned and sauntered up to the guard while she watched, mostly hidden from the guard’s line of sight, hugging the curved wall.

Her focus was split only slightly, multitasking one of her specialties, as she considered her current partner. The pull of him was still there, as was the repulsion that had caused a slight churn in her stomach as she’d pressed her cool lips to his warm skin, but the repelling force was already lessening, reminding her of the time she’d been trapped in a pile of refuse for a few hours; at first, the smell had been nearly unbearable, but then she’d gotten used to it, and it had almost faded away.

Of course, it had burnt out her ability to smell anything properly for the next day and a half, but still, maybe it would keep being easier to be around him if, for whatever reason, they stuck together.

She watched him tap the guard on the shoulder.

“Hi,” he said suggestively when the man turned. Jack grabbed the guard’s gun, looked over the guard’s shoulder, and then ran at full speed down the adjacent corridor. The guard followed, pulling a spare gun off his belt, then three more guards followed behind, all clamoring about the escaped prisoner.

Jenny waited a few seconds before sneaking into the now-clear hallway, sending a silent wish for luck in Jack’s direction and moving to the first occupied cell. She took the keys off her belt and unlocked the door as quickly as she could without making too much noise, then motioned for the captive to stay quiet and follow her. She repeated the process until the eighteen occupied cells had been emptied, then led the various species to the access panel and watched as they climbed toward freedom and the empty room above.

She looked around after the last captive had started the climb, but not seeing Jack, she closed the door and went off in search of her companion once more.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Jenny have rescued the prisoners, and now they need to rescue themselves. Brief discussion of injury, not too graphic.
> 
> Beta: GoingToTheTardis

Jack wasn’t sure whether he’d been more surprised by the fact that Jenny had kissed him or the fact that she’d avoided his lips altogether.

Not that this was really the best time to be thinking about it.

Jack jumped out of the way just in time as a guard shot past him, and he continued running through the hallways, darting left when he reached another junction. He kept watch for another left turn; he’d run long and far enough that he should be able to start making his way back toward where he and Jenny had split up.

How had she known those hand signals? He’d learned them while training to be a Time Agent. He was pretty sure his recent teleport had sent him only through space, not through time, which meant that the hand signals hadn’t been invented yet.

Which meant she was a time traveler.

Well, either she was a time traveler or she’d been around someone who was, he supposed. Or potentially, she might have found a book that had taken a trip through time. Or maybe he really _had_ moved through time and was just out of practice with the sensation. So really, it didn’t have to mean that she was a time traveler, but still--

Jack swore under his breath as a projectile grazed his leg, and he ducked down another hallway. He forced another burst of speed as he came to consecutive intersections, taking them quickly and then ducking into a recessed doorway, holding himself out of sight of the guards who raced past down the wrong corridor.

He thought back through the turns he’d made, estimating how far he’d gone, calling on years, decades of experience in sneaking through buildings, then continued through the hallway when it got quiet. After just a few minutes, Jack saw he was approaching the intersection where he and Jenny had parted ways.

He didn’t see her.

Making his way further into that section of hallway, he realized he didn’t see anybody. The cells were empty. Jenny had clearly done her job.

So where was she? Had she left without him, without letting him know how to escape?

That didn’t really seem likely, not since she’d broken in to save him.

Jack was nearing what looked like the end of the section of cells when he heard loud shouts from behind him. He ducked behind a pillar of sorts, listening to anger and confusion, not needing to understand the words to know the guards had found out that the prisoners had escaped.

This would make Jack and Jenny’s own escape a bit more challenging.

“We’re never going to get out of here if you just stand there all day.”

Jack spun, weapon ready, to face the voice before realizing it belonged to Jenny, who was standing just out of his reach, a smile on her face.

“Which way’s out?” he asked, lowering his gun.

“Behind you,” she answered.

“You mean back with the angry guards?”

“The ones coming this way? Yes. Come on.” Jenny took his hand, and they ran.

If Jack stuck with Jenny, he'd soon be in the best shape of his life.

“Know another way out?” he asked.

“Not a practical one, no,” she replied, glancing back at him before returning her attention back to the corridor in front of them, “but I saw some supply rooms and think we can hide until the guards pass and search for us elsewhere. This way.”

Jenny led them down another hallway, and then she let go of his hand and practically shoved him into the nearest closet as they heard yet another group of angry guards approaching.

The door shut heavily behind them, and Jack held his breath as he listened to them pass, watching the light that outlined the door flicker as the guards moved past.

“We should be safe here, for a bit,” murmured Jenny.

She was standing between him and the door, facing him. The closet was dimly lit, bright enough for him to tell where she was, but too dark to see an expression. They had enough room to move around, but barely, and sitting would be possible only if they were okay with some tangling of limbs.

Not that Jack had any particular objection to that idea. In fact…

“How long are we staying?” he asked.

“Not long enough for _that_ , thanks,” she said, amusement in her voice.

Encouraged, Jack continued. “So if we had enough time, that would be a possibility?”

“You’re bleeding,” she said, her tone changing along with the subject.

Jack sighed. “Right. Forgot about that.” Now that they were still and relatively safe, he felt the graze stinging, throbbing gently but persistently. “Isn’t anything serious.”

“Maybe not, but it’s bleeding, yes? The Xark’nithians watch the ground, remember?”

“I don’t think I left any for them to find,” he said. He could feel the cool trickle of blood on his leg, but it went only from the wound on his thigh to just below his knee.

Jenny knelt in front of him, leaning close to examine his leg, and her caution, the unfamiliar feeling of being taken care of, was enough to override what might have been his normal reaction to a beautiful person kneeling at such a convenient height in front of him.

She was amazing. Jack wasn’t sure he’d ever met someone quite like her. He’d need to be careful.

He’d never quite closed himself off entirely, but it got harder as the years went on, harder to lose people who mattered. Casual flings were easier, but Jack still craved deeper emotional connections and found himself too frequently involved with people who would pass on, who would leave him when they found out the truth. The longer he’d been trapped on Earth, the more he’d appreciated why the Doctor had kept Rose from getting as close as Jack _knew_ he wanted her to be, why he’d kept people at a distance in many respects while delighting in them in other ways, why he’d lied to keep Rose safe.

~O~O~O~

Jenny understood why her father had been reluctant to accept her at first. People were so fragile.

She carefully assessed Jack’s wound, grateful that he didn’t seem to question her ability to do it properly in the near darkness. Her eyesight, along with most of her senses, was a bit better than most species’, and it was yet another part of herself that she hid from others.

He really didn’t seem to be badly wounded, and the bleeding had already stopped on its own. It was a little too dim for her to start searching the shelves without raising questions, and she didn’t see any obvious bandages or cleaning supplies. It didn’t seem that sort of storage area.

Instead, she saw what looked like miscellaneous mechanical parts.

Shoving down a surge of hope that she might have stumbled onto what she’d been searching for, she turned her attention back toward Jack.

“How are you feeling? Are you dizzy or anything?”

“From that small a wound?” Jack sounded surprised.

“Well, that and being shot a bit more directly, almost dying, and then all the running on top of it.”

“Ah. No, I’m feeling okay. I recover pretty fast.” He’d switched back to the flippant tone he seemed to prefer as default. “What about you? Get everyone rescued without getting hurt?” He reached down, took her hand, and pulled her back up to her feet, running his thumbs along her palm rather than releasing her.

“Very uneventful rescue, really,” she replied, focusing on keeping her voice even, wondering why she wasn’t pulling away. Letting people close had only ever resulted in pain, in one form or another. “I wasn’t shot, and definitely not twice. You’re a pretty effective distraction.” She closed her eyes.

“I’ve been told that a time or two.” His voice had slipped into a rumble, and she swallowed. “So, what brought you here?”

“To the planet, you mean?” she asked, finally pulling her hand away to rub her neck. “I didn’t really have anywhere to be. I’ve been travelling, stopping anywhere that catches my fancy.” She didn’t add that she’d fancy finding someone who might know more about who she was, about the race she belonged to and yet didn’t. “Didn’t really mean to stay, not after realizing how the locals treat those who look different.”

“But you stayed long enough to learn the language.”

“Had a bit of trouble in landing,” said Jenny. “One of those birds I mentioned? They didn’t really appreciate a spaceship coming through their air space. My ship’s pretty small, and the birds are not. I’m a good pilot, though, and a good mechanic, too, so I was able to repair most of the damage.”

“But not all of it?” His voice was sympathetic.

“Not all of it. There are a couple parts I need, pretty common on other planets, but since they don’t fly here…”

“They wouldn’t exactly make ship parts, would they?” He finished for her, and she nodded.

“The shelves in here look promising, though. I want to wait a few more minutes before turning on a light, just in case.”

Jack looked at her. “Why would they… Oh! If they confiscated the parts from their prisoners.”

“Exactly,” she answered.

“Do they keep a lot of people here? Weren’t many where you found me.”

Jenny’s mouth pulled downward. “You were where they keep the dangerous prisoners. Those cells are emptied at least once a day. They don’t bother keeping those who might be a risk. Feed them to the animals instead.”

“So if you try to defend yourself…” Jack scowled, his voice tight as he continued. “And blowing this jail up would probably mean they just skip straight to killing people if they don’t have anywhere to put them, wouldn’t it?”

“I think so, yes.” Jenny’s frustration matched his own. “I built a beacon, though, and when we get off this planet, we can make sure others know not to come too close.”

“How are we getting the rest of the prisoners off the planet?”

“My ship,” she answered. “It’ll be standing room only. I’ve got just the control room and my bedroom, but I saw some abandoned ships orbiting the planet, and probably some belong to the people we released, so it won’t need to be that crowded for long.” She let out an amused breath. “Probably should’ve taken the abandoned ships as some sort of clue to avoid the planet, I suppose.”

“But what fun would that be?” Jack was grinning at her.

“That’s true,” she said, returning the look.

His expression shifted until he watched her more seriously. “Where’d you get your military training?”

Jenny rubbed her neck. “I was born into a war, born to fight. Didn’t really try to learn most of what I know.”

“So you grew up with it?”

“Something like that,” she said, dropping her hand back to her side. “Left as soon as I could, though.”

“And was that in this current century?” he asked.

What was his story that he would ask about time travel that quickly?

He continued. “I ask because the hand signals you used earlier, those don’t come around for a couple of millennia.”

Oh. Right. “On one of my first trips out, I had a disagreement with a Time Agent. Got stuck in this time instead.”

He opened his mouth, but she interrupted him before he could ask more questions.

“I think we’re safe to get some light in here,” she said.

“We should finish talking about this later,” he said.

She ignored him and pressed her ear to the door, listening carefully for sounds that might indicate anyone was nearby.

It was silent.

She flipped the light switch, wincing at the sudden brightness until her eyes adjusted, and she and Jack went to work, silently searching through the boxes of parts and supplies. In the end, they found not only the parts she’d needed, but duplicates and spares as well.

Jenny hoped she wouldn’t end up needing the spare parts, but, then again, life was more interesting when it didn’t go exactly as planned.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things finally slow down enough for the duo to talk. How much of their history will come out? Some mentions of sex, nothing that should bump up the rating, but maybe don’t let your boss read over your shoulder.  
> Beta: GoingToTheTardis

She was hiding something. Not that he was exactly sharing everything, not with someone he’d just met, but still.

Jenny was clearly unwilling to share a specific something with him, not yet, and since she’d seemed fairly open otherwise, Jack was a little wary about it.

They’d taken the ship parts with them through their escape shaft, with very few puns on Jack’s part. The trek from where it let out to where Jenny had holed up took longer; many of the former prisoners were either out of shape or had never been in shape in the first place, and walking across uneven roofs or jumping from one building to another when the pathway crossed an alleyway wasn’t exactly an easy trip for the inexperienced.

Now, he played the assistant, handing her the tools she needed, advice where he could, as she repaired the ship, the others waiting below in her temporary living space. His attention shifted as he registered that she’d slowed down from her earlier efficient pace.

“The hand signals,” she said without further context.

“Come again?”

“You said the hand signals I used earlier wouldn’t come around for another couple of millennia.” She slid out from where she’d been working on the ship. “How do you know?”

“Picked up on that, did you?” Jack chuckled. “Used to be a bit of a time traveler myself.” He hesitated. How much should he tell her? “A Time Agent, actually, so it was sort of funny you mentioned them.”

“‘Used to be’?” He saw her eyes flit to his empty wrist; he’d left his vortex manipulator at home. Torchwood was a good deal more interested in alien and futuristic technology than he liked, so he didn’t bring it with him on missions unless he was headed somewhere that there was a chance for repair.

He’d have to start wearing it again, just in case. He never knew what was going to happen, and his wrist never felt quite right without it, anyway.

“They took a couple years worth of my memory.” So many years later, and that still gnawed at him. “So I took my vortex manipulator and left.” He looked at her, her eyes bright with interest even in the dim light she was working by. “There was a bit of an incident, and it burnt out. I got stranded on Earth for years.”

She looked him up and down without her apparent interest fading. “It can’t have been too many years you were stranded, not unless they hire children to be Time Agents.”

“You’d be surprised. People don’t always look their age.”

She laughed, a clear sound he wanted her to repeat often. “I suppose you’re right about that.” She smiled at him, then ducked back behind the panel of the ship before continuing. “So how’d you get here, then, if you were stuck on Earth?”

“Funny story, that.” Jack looked around automatically, scanning for threats before getting more comfortable, sitting close enough to Jenny that he could still hand her parts or tools if she needed them. “I was investigating some disappearances for this company I work for occasionally. Every time they sent an agent, the agent disappeared, too.”

“So they asked you to try?” The clanking and ratcheting noises continued.

“Right. We figured it was kidnapping, possibly, or maybe she was just really good at hiding the bodies.” He leaned back, resting his weight on his arms. “She seemed interested in me right away, so I went with standard seduction tactics. You know, see how much someone’s willing to share with a lover.”

“Do people really tell you what they’ve been about during pillow talk?”

Jack chuckled. “If they’ve had a good enough time, sex can be better than a truth serum. Anyway, it didn’t work. Things were going fine, and then it was like a switch flipped with no warning. She started yelling about betrayal, pulled a weapon, and forced me into the basement. Didn’t seem to appreciate my quip about going to the bar together, either. It was brilliant, let me tell you. Instead of backing off, she grabbed this remote and then there was that familiar feeling…”

“Interplanetary teleportation device, right. You mentioned that right after you landed.”

“Mhmm. Hadn’t done it in ages, but I knew I’d been teleported further than just somewhere else on Earth.”

“Do you think that’s where the other agents went? They got teleported?” she asked.

“They weren’t in the group we rescued,” he answered, “so if they got sent here, I was too late. I can hope they were sent somewhere else instead.”

“I hope so, too.” The sounds of metal on metal stopped. “I think I’m done here,” said Jenny, and Jack stood as she joined him. “Do you still have your manipulator?”

“Not on me, unfortunately,” he said.

“That’s a shame. I’m pretty good with most technology, and I think depending on what burnt out, if we can get ahold of that teleportation device for some spare parts…”

“...We might be able to fix it? Jenny, you are a genius.” He took her face in his hands and planted a kiss firmly on her mouth.

~O~O~O~

His lips were warm against hers, the kiss much too brief as he pulled away just seconds later.

“I am a bit, actually,” she said, blinking before she grinned. “Come on, let’s go make sure she starts.”

Jenny led the way into her ship, licking her lips as she opened the door. It had been much too long since she’d last had a fling, she decided. That had to be why her body was reacting so strongly to Jack’s open advances.

She somehow knew she could tell him to stop. He might not quit thinking about sex, but he’d stop being so obvious about it.

But why should she tell him to stop? Besides the fact that she still felt so pulled toward him, that the nausea and discomfort receded further the more she got to know him, that crossing that line with someone she genuinely liked might make it harder when he left.

It sounded a bit too perfect, really. He could almost keep up with her physically even after being wounded, he kept things interesting, and he wasn’t exactly hard on the eyes. She was pretty sure, too, that she’d just volunteered to take him back to Earth, infiltrate someone’s home, and repair his vortex manipulator.

After all that, would it really make a difference whether they’d gone to bed together? She shook her head and turned her attention to the ship before she had to change her mind about which one of them, Jack or herself, was more focused on sex.

Her fingers flew over buttons and keys, flipping switches and entering sequences that were automatic to her.

“Everything seems to be working. I think we did it.” She turned to look at Jack and saw him watching her, bemused. “What?”

“Déjà vu.” He stared a moment longer, then looked around. “I’ve been in a ship a lot like this one, a lot of years back. Where’d you find her?”

“She found me, sort of.” Jenny read through the various screens of data while she continued. “After I got sent back in time, and on a fairly boring planet no less, I needed a ship. I found a high-stakes game of cards and goaded one of the players into betting his ship. When the players realized I was good at body language, good at guessing what cards might be next, they decided I was cheating and chased me out. I hid in the first ship I found, and when I realized it was his, the same ship I’d technically won, I took it.”

“Do you believe in fate?” A glance at the man now standing next to her in the rather small cockpit showed that he was more serious than his tone indicated.

“Maybe. I don’t know.” Finding Jack, being able to save him, feeling that pull toward him and finding out they’d both been stranded in times they didn’t belong to, did that count as fate? “Sometimes it seems like it. Coincidences too big to just be chance. The number of times I’ve landed on a planet just as a society-changing riot has erupted, for instance.” She looked at him again. “What about you?”

“It can depend on the day.” His eyes were firmly on the monitor in front of him. “Most of the time, I have to wonder what it says about me, what I’ve done to earn my fate.” He looked at her, eyes much older than they’d seemed earlier, and then grinned, his whole face lighter almost immediately. “Then again, there are other times I end up in a ship that’s meant to be piloted by two and has only one pilot, and a stunning one at that. How have you managed to fly her?”

“I’m very quick,” she said. “It’ll be easier to fly with two, though, if you know how.”

“I do.” His tone was confident, his smile easy, no trace remaining of the man who’d looked at least twice his age, who’d spoken of fate as if it was his personal punishment.

“Brilliant. Let’s go get our passengers.”

~O~O~O~

Forget pillow talk. Jack was fairly certain Jenny was going to get everything out of him before they’d even had a real kiss.

A real kiss that would be fantastic if that brief peck earlier was anything to go by.

He watched the last of the passengers crowd into the ship, then he squeezed inside, shutting the hatch behind him and making his way to the copilot’s chair, only to find it occupied.

“Right then,” Jenny’s voice echoed over a speaker system that Jack was surprised was even present on so small a ship. “I know it’s a tight fit, but I need everyone to be patient. It isn’t safe to try to get off the planet more than once, so we’re doing this in one go.” She paused to gesture to Jack, indicating he should stand next to her in front of the flight panel. “We’ve got just the two chairs with seat belts, and there are safety restraints on the bed that should hold at least two more.”

“It’ll hold three,” said Jack, smirking at her raised eyebrow. “Just trust me.”

Jenny sighed and continued. “Three more, rather, can be safely restrained in the bed. The ride might get a bit bumpy, so I want the weakest in those safest places. Everyone else, find something or someone to hold on to.”

~O~O~O~

As Jenny disengaged the speaker system, she could see Jack visibly resisting an inappropriate comment about what people could hold on to. She shook her head with a smile, and she saw him grin to himself. They went through their pre-flight sequences quickly, working together in a way that felt practiced, while their passengers rearranged themselves, those who were able to buckle in doing so.

The flight to get off the planet was mercifully uneventful, with only a glimpse of the dangerous birds that had stranded her there. Once in orbit, and with some of Jack’s charismatic help, they were able to figure out who had ships nearby, and who was headed somewhere convenient to those who didn’t have any other available transport. Finally, the ship was empty save herself and the captain.

She was tired. She didn’t need much sleep, really, but she hadn’t gotten any while rescuing everyone, and she’d skipped it the night before in favor of reading. Jack looked tired, too, and Jenny realized he probably hadn’t had proper sleep in at least a day, either.

She weighed her words before deciding on the clearest way to express herself until she had figured out whether she was willing to get physical with him.

“I could really use some proper sleep, and it looks like you could use the same. There’s just the one bed, but if you behave, you’re welcome to join me.”

He smiled, appreciative rather than lecherous, and Jenny felt herself relax. He gestured toward the cabin. “Lead the way.” 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the journey back to Earth, Jack and Jenny talk, and secrets are revealed.
> 
> Beta: GoingToTheTardis

Jenny woke a few hours before Jack, who snored gently while she checked their route to Earth for any potential hazards or distractions. It looked like a relatively boring trip, really, though it would take a couple weeks even at her little ship’s top speed.

She patted the dash fondly. She’d love to have faster transport, the sort she might have access to after fixing Jack’s vortex manipulator, but this ship had seen her through some rough patches, had held up amazingly well despite her rough treatment.

She lay back down next to Jack, taking a book with her. Reading wasn’t always her first choice of activity, but it was definitely one of the best ways to pass time alone on a spaceship.

Not that she was exactly alone at the moment, but her company was still snoozing contentedly.

She made her way through much of the book before her bedmate stirred, grinning up at her when he saw she was already awake.

“Hello, gorgeous,” he said, his voice still rough with sleep.

“Hello, Jack.” She set her book on the recessed shelf that served as a bedside table.

“Been awake long?” He stretched, his shirt pulling up to reveal his stomach and the hint of definition on his abs. Jenny bit her lip and focused on his face instead.

Not that his blue eyes were much safer territory. Okay, the man was gorgeous. It still didn’t mean she had to do anything about it.

“Little while, yeah. Don’t sleep all that much if I can help it.” She glanced at his jacket, which was slung across a bookshelf, then crossed one booted foot over the other, feeling ridiculous in her sudden shyness.

“I must’ve been out for a while then. I only sleep about six hours most nights, and you look fully rested.” He propped his head up, resting it back on his hands against the pillow, and looked her up and down.

Jenny laughed. Somehow, she was more comfortable with his flirting than without it, and her hesitation faded. “My legs look rested, do they?”

“Definitely.” He grinned, eyes sparkling. “Seriously though, the lack of sleep is impressive.”

“It’s always been that way for me.”

“Does it run in the family?” He looked at her curiously, his forehead creasing when her face fell. “Sore subject?”

“Something like that.” She tried for a light tone, but he sat up fully, watching her.

“Is this what you’re hiding? Something about your family?”

“Jack…”

“Look, I know everyone’s got secrets, but I’ve been screwed over by a partner before, and I’ve just got this feeling that whatever you’re hiding, it’s going to change things. I’ve had a lot of experience, and I don’t always get gut feelings, but when I do, I listen. I really want to get this talk over with before we decide to stick together on purpose instead of just because it’s convenient.”

Jenny sat forward, wrapping her arms around her knees. From the corner of her eye, she saw Jack’s posture relax slightly, his head lower.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Believe it or not, I’m not trying to upset you, especially when I’m kinda at your mercy here.”

Jenny thought back to every time people had found out about her, about her age, her non-human status, her creation, any of it. Maybe she’d just had horrible luck with those she’d tried to let in, but the reactions had been hard to deal with, and she hated the idea of seeing confusion or revulsion on his face because of what she was.

“You said everyone’s got secrets,” she said finally. “What about you?”

Jack sighed and leaned back again, and Jenny rested her cheek on her knees so she could see him.

“Okay. I can go first. That’s fair.” He rubbed his neck. “I’m not looking for a whole life story, right? Just things that are likely to be relevant to a partnership.”

Jenny nodded.

“Sorry, I know I’m coming across like a bit of a jerk.” He took a breath and then released it. “This isn’t exactly something I share with people.” He tilted his head up toward the ceiling. “I was traveling with this couple for a while, right? I mean, not that they called themselves a couple, but they were. They had this thing where, I swear, they touched each other and everything else faded away. You know that feeling with a teleport, that hook through your belly?”

Jenny nodded.

“I teleported them, and they didn’t even notice, they were so wrapped up in each other. And it wasn’t sex, either, it was just… Them.” His eyes remained trained on the ceiling, but a small smile crossed his lips.

“I’m not sure I’ve been around a pair like that.”

“I haven’t either, other than those two,” he said, continuing. “Maybe I should’ve expected it, but I mean, just because I was the third wheel, it didn’t…” He paused, seeming to try to get his bearings, and Jenny shifted so she could place a hand on his arm. He glanced at her, smiling tightly, before looking away again. “There was this fight, end-of-the-universe sort of thing, and he sent her away to keep her safe, only she must have come back. There’s not really another way to explain it, the bad guys defeated and them both gone.”

“They left you?” Jenny felt a surge of empathy; she knew what it felt like to be left behind.

“To give them some credit, they might have thought I was dead.”

“Why did they think that?” She felt her mouth dry. How similar was his situation to hers?

“Because I was, for a while.” He looked directly at her, finally. “I came back, and since then, I can’t stay dead. I can die, I can feel the pain, but then I come back.”

The events of the last day or so flashed through her head. “You died when they shot you earlier, didn’t you?”

He nodded. “And that doesn’t freak you out? Make you want to torture me or use me for experiments?”

What kind of life had he had to go through? She shook her head emphatically. “I can relate to some of it. I mean, I don’t think I come back to life when I die, but I’m not exactly about to test it.”

“I didn’t test it on purpose, believe me. Not at first.”

“How long…” She moved her hand to take his. “How long has it been since you got left behind?”

“About a hundred years.” He squeezed her hand.

“Wow. You were right, you are older than you look.” She smiled to soften any sting her words might carry, then took a deep breath of her own. “For me, it’s been three years since I was left behind.”

~O~O~O~

He could tell it was hard for her, and Jack felt another surge of regret that he’d pushed her into opening up. It didn’t look like it was any easier for her to speak than it had been for him, and at least he’d had a century to get used to the idea.

“By your family?” he asked.

“Yeah, sort of.” She pulled her hand away, wrapping her arms around her legs in the way she had earlier, the way that had made him feel like such an ass. She looked so vulnerable, at odds with the confident, smart, capable woman he was getting to know. “I wasn’t born into a family so much. I was made.”

Jack blinked. “You mean like cloning?”

“Sort of. A single biological parent, but I’m not a copy.”

She refused to look at him, every bit of her body telling him people didn’t usually take this information well. The narrow-mindedness of so many of the people from this time… Sometimes, the naivety was amusing, endearing even, but other times, it made Jack miss his native century.

Not that there weren’t idiots in every time period.

“That’s not so unusual in certain time periods,” he said. “Pretty common in some, even.”

She didn’t seem to hear him, continuing, “My dad, he wasn’t trying to be a parent. I was forced on him, wasn’t something he wanted. We didn’t even have a full day together. By the end of it, though, I thought maybe he might accept me anyway.”

Jack made an effort to relax; his getting upset wasn’t likely to be much help. “What happened that you only had the day?”

“Same as you.” The smile that pulled at her lips held no humor. “I died. When I came around, he’d already left. I didn’t exactly fit with the people I could’ve stayed with, so I left, too.”

“Do we need more than two of us to make a club? ‘Those who died but didn’t stay dead and got left behind’?”

She chuckled and leaned against him, and he put an arm around her shoulder. She kept her eyes trained on the doorway of the bedroom as she spoke.

“It does seem we have a fair bit in common.”

“Why didn’t you fit in where you were?” He asked after a moment, getting the feeling she wasn’t done. She sighed.

“I’m not exactly human. I look it, I know, but I’m not. They were trying to build a new world, trying to get two different races to mesh, and I just mucked things up.”

Jack pulled her closer to him. “I doubt you’ve ever made things worse instead of better.”

“Thanks for saying.” She looked up at him, eyes bright, her cheek against his shoulder and her lips so close that he had to hold himself back. “It doesn’t bother you that I’m not human?”

“Not in the slightest.” Jack grinned. “I wouldn’t exactly fit in with the locals where we met, even if I was the same species. I’ve probably slept with more non-humans than humans.” Pieces of her story worked themselves together suddenly. “So that makes you just a few years old.”

He regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth, more so when she pulled away.

“I’m not a child.” Her eyes flashed, and he held up his hands.

“Didn’t think that for a minute.” He let his gaze rake her body, intent unmistakable. “Believe me. I only meant it seems like you’ve been through a lot in just a few years.”

She nodded, caution still in her eyes, and he wanted to kick himself.

“Your age doesn’t matter to me any more than the fact you’re not human. We’ve got more in common than most, and I don’t want anything like that getting in the way of whatever we might have. Do you?”

Jenny watched him for what felt like ages, then shook her head, releasing her anger in a breath. “No, I don’t. I’ve felt like we were connected from the start.” She bit her lip before her eyes darted toward Jack’s mouth, and he felt a rush of anticipation. “I think I’d like to stop talking for a bit now.”

Luckily, she didn’t wait for his okay as she adjusted so that she could lean forward and press her lips to his in an enthusiastic kiss that he returned with equal fervor.

Jenny kissed the same way she seemed to live; at full speed, and with all of herself involved, and the kiss felt more intimate than a lot of the sex he’d had.

When she pulled away long enough to remove her tight shirt, he licked his lips. She was going to be the death of him.

It was going to be worth it.

He pulled her toward him, his hands caressing the skin of her back, sliding upward appreciatively. He paused before he was sure why he did it, pressing his forehead against hers as her heart pounded into his hands.

Both of them.

He felt the double heart beat, wondering only briefly whether she just had a particularly strong heart before more pieces clicked into place: the familiarity when she was at the console of her ship, her physical abilities, her lack of sleep, the coolness of her skin.

“Jenny?”

“Yeah?” She sounded slightly out of breath, and he squashed down a surge of pride that he’d winded her when all their running hadn’t.

“Your father,” he said, trying to choose his words carefully in case he was wrong, “did he say what he was, if not human?”

“Yeah, but I’ve never been able to find any trace of them.” Jenny sat back on her heels, her body still angled toward his. “He was a Time Lord. He called himself the Doctor.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Jenny finish their conversation and their trip to Earth and form a plan (or not) to rescue the missing agents and retrieve what they need for the vortex manipulator.
> 
> Beta: GoingToTheTardis, with guest services from ScullyWolf (except then I went and changed some stuff afterward)

_“Yeah, but I’ve never been able to find any trace of them.” Jenny sat back on her heels, her body still angled toward his. “He was a Time Lord. He called himself the Doctor.”_

“You’re kidding me, right?”

Jenny sat up straight, feeling exposed now that Jack’s mood had changed without any apparent cause. Unless…

“Have you heard of them? Time Lords?” She had never really been able to find any information about her own race, and she only knew the tiny, cryptic details she’d gotten from her father. She and Jack had so much in common, it really shouldn’t surprise her that he’d be the one who had some of the information she’d been searching for.

“Not just Time Lords.” He watched her closely. “You know the guy who left me? That was the Doctor.”

Jenny stared. It was impossible that the universe was this small.

“Talk about fate, huh?” Jack continued watching her, with myriad emotions crossing his face. “The Doctor’s daughter. Seriously?”

She nodded slowly. Sometimes, in her wildest imaginings, she’d thought maybe she would find someone who’d heard of the Doctor, but for it to be someone who’d actually traveled with him? Not to mention…

“He left us both, apparently,” she said.

Jack’s arms went around her quickly, warm and comforting.

“He’d never have left you on purpose, Jenny. I’m sure of it. I don’t know what happened, not when he left either of us, but there’s no way the man I knew left his daughter behind.”

“He did, though.” She took a breath. “It does make a bit more sense, if he thought I was dead. Why would he expect me to come back?”

Jack made a sound of agreement, though he held himself still, and Jenny pulled back far enough to eye him.

“I’m not sure on this, okay?” he said. “And even if the information’s right, something must have happened, because there’s no way he would have left without making sure.”

“Making sure of what? What information?” Jack really didn’t want to say whatever he was thinking, did he?

“I think the Doctor changes bodies instead of dying. At least, that’s my guess, based on some of the stuff I’ve found in Torchwood’s files. I don’t have complete access to their system. I don’t technically have access to most of the stuff I’ve read.”

So the Doctor had known, then, that she could come back to life, and still he’d left her? As if reading her thoughts, Jack shook his head.

“Like I said, if I’m right, I’m sure something happened to take him away. He wouldn’t have left you on purpose.”

The certainty from this man who’d traveled with him, who seemed to know the Doctor and have his own reasons to distrust the Doctor’s motivations, went a long way toward soothing years of hurt.

“Believe me,” Jack went on, “I’ve seen how hard he fights for those he cares about, and there’s no way he didn’t care about you.”

“Okay.” Her mind was a jumbled mess of thoughts about what might have happened, what had happened, what might happen in the future. “Do you know how to find him?”

Jack grimaced. “I know about where to look, but not really when. The times I know he was there, I can’t exactly show up, since I was already there.” He looked startled a moment before he continued. “Speaking of paradoxes, when were you born for the Doctor? I mean, what did he look like?”

“I don’t know. Brown? Brown suit, brown eyes, brown hair. Skinny.”

Jack nodded. “And did he travel with anyone?”

“Yeah, he had these two women with him--”

“Rose?”

“No. Donna and Martha.”

He frowned slightly. “Alright. Well I mean, that sounds like the version of the Doctor I was assuming came after the one I traveled with, only I can’t imagine him without Rose.”

“But we should be able to find him, figure out what happened to us, yeah?”

Jack blinked at her. “Yeah, I hope so. Sorry, you look a little bit like Rose. If I didn’t know how you were born, I’d think you were theirs.”

“I’m definitely not, but that’s odd.” She settled her hands on his chest, and his grip relaxed further, his hand absently stroking her lower back. “What’s any of that got to do with a paradox?”

“Oh. Well, I figured you’re staying with me until you find him, but we need to make sure he doesn’t meet you before you’re even born in his timeline.”

“Right.” That made sense. Jenny had read plenty about time travel, some that felt right and some that didn’t, but she hadn’t had much in the way of actual experience. “So I’m staying with you, then?”

“I mean, I’m not gonna force you to.” He sounded unsure, his hands pausing their movement.

“No, I’d like to stay with you, if you don’t mind that I’m the Doctor’s daughter.”

He grinned, looking like his normal self for the first time since they’d started talking. “Believe me, that’s really not a problem.”

She smiled in return, sliding her hands until she found a place that made him gasp. “Still gonna do this, then?”

His reply was immediate. “Oh, yeah.”

~O~O~O~

The two weeks passed quickly. The ship did much of the piloting on its own, and Jack filled Jenny in on the Doctor, relating the stories, good and bad, most from his own experience but a few from the Torchwood archives.

She’d loved it when Jack looked through her closet, seeing that all her clothes were identical save for different colors of the same shirt, and told her she dressed very much like the version of her father that he knew.

The rest of their time was spent without words. Well, at least not of the words informational sort. Instructional, enlightening, and filthy, on the other hand…

Before Jack knew it, they were coming in for landing, Jack using codes he had “borrowed” from Torchwood in case of emergency, letting out a breath of relief when they worked to get them to Earth’s surface.

They landed the cloaked ship in a field not too far from a road where Jack was able to call for a cab, Jenny carrying a suitcase with some clothing and a couple books, along with a few small weapons.

“Want me to carry that for you?” he offered while they waited for their ride.

Jenny just laughed.

They arrived at his apartment without incident. It was small, but after the confines of Jenny’s ship, it seemed spacious.

“Right then, where’s this place we need to break into?” Jenny said after tossing her suitcase on the bed.

She had her hands on her hips and looked ready and able to take on absolutely anything.

“We should probably make a plan first,” he suggested.

She grinned. “Where’s the fun in that? Besides, how’d that work for you last time?”

He shrugged. “I dunno. I met you, so it wasn’t a total bust.”

Jenny’s cheeks pinkened, something Jack hadn’t seen happen outside of bed. Well, outside of bedroom activities.

“Mission wise, though, not so much, right?” she said. “Let’s go through the layout of the house first, since you know where everything is, but then the longer we wait, the less likely we are to rescue anyone.”

“I guess that strategy went pretty well for you in the prison.” He considered it, weighing his expertise and her own, as well as any alternative options. “Okay. I’ll draw a sketch of the house and then check in with Torchwood, see exactly how many are missing by this point. Hopefully nobody was stupid enough to go in after I disappeared.”

He grabbed some paper and a pencil, quickly drawing what he remembered, and she studied it while he made the phone call in the next room.

“Nobody else,” he said, returning, attaching the vortex manipulator to his wrist where he should’ve left it in the first place.

“How many are we looking for, then?” she asked, rolling up the papers as they left and tucking them into a loop on her belt, something Jack found irrationally appealing.

“Three agents, two civilians,” he replied. “It looks like the three other civilians who’d been missing, they were returned, no worse for the wear other than missing memory.” He winced at the knowledge that Torchwood may have been the one to remove their memories, rather than the person who’d abducted them.

“And the person whose home we’re entering?”

“Human, by all appearances. No clue how she got ahold of a teleportation device that strong, but I’m glad she did since we can use it.” They climbed into a waiting cab. “Don’t really know much else.”

Jenny nodded. “All right, then. We don’t want to kill her, not if we can help it.”

“Of course not,” agreed Jack amicably. “She only tried to get me killed.”

“If she knew how to use the device,” Jenny pointed out. “We don’t know that she’s harmed anyone else, and if the technology isn’t hers, it’s possible she doesn’t really know how to control it.”

“You’re right,” he responded. “Don’t really like thinking about how much worse that could’ve been for me, though, if that’s the case.”

Jenny broke from her businesslike attitude long enough to squeeze his hand, and then she returned to her questioning.

“Tell me about the people who are missing. Do they have anything in common?”

Jack answered her questions as thoroughly as possible, impressed by her knowledge, her comfort with this sort of thing. He kept up with her, followed her logic and reasoning, he was happy to admit, but even though it was something he’d studied for much longer than she’d been alive, it was something she’d been born with, and it showed.

They drove past the house that blended in perfectly in the unassuming neighborhood. Nobody would guess this to be the scene of multiple disappearances involving alien tech. They got out of the cab several blocks away and walked back toward their destination.

“I’ll go to the door since she isn’t expecting me, doesn’t already know who I am,” said Jenny as they walked, and Jack nodded.

“And while she’s distracted, I’ll go straight to the basement to check for prisoners or cohorts, and I’ll disable the device without breaking it.”

“Exactly,” said Jenny with a grin, and he stopped her before they were in sight of the house, pulling her toward him for a kiss designed to show her just how much he appreciated her, from her mind to her spirit to the sweet curves he slid his hands to.

She smacked the offending hands away, letting the kiss continue for several more seconds before pulling away with another smile. “We can continue that after we’ve saved the day. It’s a little distracting right before.”

“Yes ma’am,” Jack agreed, winking at her. “It’s all in a day’s work, isn’t it? Save the day, rescue the victims, defeat the bad guy, reactivate a busted vortex manipulator, get la--”

“Shh!” Jenny put a hand over his mouth and pulled him off the street and behind a large hedge, pressing her body against his rather delightfully. After a moment, she pulled back. “Sorry, I heard someone coming.”

“Superior senses?” he asked.

“Of course.” She glanced down the street, then back at Jack. “Are you ready?”

“I’ll follow you anywhere,” he said, letting his sincerity show through and resisting a smile when she blushed again.

“Okay then. Let’s go.”

Jack nodded and followed Jenny, ready to take her lead.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Jenny complete their rescue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this update took longer than usual! Life got a bit in the way, as it does from time to time :)
> 
> Beta: GoingToTheTardis

The rescue mission went considerably more smoothly than Jack’s initial infiltration attempt had gone.

For one thing, nobody got sent across the galaxy this time.

When Jack got into the basement, this time without someone attacking him - thank you, Jenny - he immediately saw the problem in the form of a beacon.

The cylindrical metal was glowing and pulsing, emitting blue light and a hum that was almost vibration instead of sound. Jack took a deep breath, lifted it using just his index finger and thumb, then flipped a switch underneath and set it back down.

From upstairs came shuffling noises, bangs and clatters, then silence.

Jack scanned the room, eyes pausing briefly on the teleportation device resting inconspicuously in the middle of the floor, before moving up the stairs, wincing as they creaked. He heard footsteps approaching the doorway at the top, and he readied his weapon before the door opened.

“Jack.” Jenny was grinning at him through the doorway, her face as bright as her hair. “She’s out for a bit, and tied up, just to be safe. Really does seem just human, though, so we shouldn’t have any trouble from her.”

“Yeah, she’s human all right.” Jack put away his weapon and gestured for Jenny to follow him down the stairs, and he led her back to the device he’d disabled. “This machine only affects humans, but quite not all of us. Basically, it makes people have a serious need to gather alien tech through any means. The need to collect off-world technology gets worse over time if the machine stays on.”

Jenny picked it up, her gaze taking in every aspect of it in a practiced, expert manner that immediately made Jack want her to look at _him_ that way. “Harmless when turned off?” she asked, and Jack nodded. “Are the effects permanent?”

“No, but they’re addictive.”

“I think she felt it being turned off. She went pale and then started trying to get down here. It didn’t take much to stop her.”

What was wrong with Jack that he wished he’d been able to watch her handle the fight with the same efficiency he knew she was capable of? Maybe he could find somewhere they’d be able to fight, Jenny and himself, without doing any damage. Maybe even with enough privacy that they’d be able to get distracted afterward. Then again, as long as she was willing, they didn’t strictly _need_ privacy.

“What are you grinning for?” Jenny asked, an eyebrow arched in a way that told Jack she had her suspicions.

His grin widened. “Nope. I can’t tell you until we’re done here. You said it was a distraction.”

Jenny rolled her eyes at him and planted a firm kiss on his lips before pulling away, setting the device back down. “Have you checked for prisoners yet?”

“Not yet. I’ll check upstairs, you check down here.”

Jenny nodded, and they parted ways.

~O~O~O~

The people who’d been kidnapped had been held in different areas of the house, but Jack and Jenny found everyone unaccounted for, plus one more person who’d not yet been reported missing. Torchwood was notified and arrived with several agents, taking the victims into custody.

“Wait.” Jenny stopped the agent who moved to take the waking perpetrator. “Let me talk to her first.”

“You’ve got to get everyone else situated anyway,” added Jack. “We can keep an eye on this one until you need her.” Jack’s voice slipped into the smooth one he used to flirt with her, and Jenny fought a grin at the blush on the agent’s face.

The agent left as the woman’s eyes opened fully. She looked confused, her eyes darting from Jack to Jenny and back again, and then she paled.

“What did I do?” Her voice was shaky, high. “What did I do? I don’t know what I did that, any of… Why would I do that?”

Jack crouched so that his face was on her level. “It’s okay. You didn’t really hurt anyone.” His voice brought to mind the soothing tones he’d used when she was upset. “We need some information from you, though.”

He was so good with people. Not that Jenny was bad with them, really, and she flirted or manipulated when the situation called for it. Watching him switch masks so easily, though, was rather disconcerting.

It did very little for her damaged trust.

“I don’t know how I can help. I don’t know how you could _want_ me to help.” The woman’s distraught voice brought Jenny’s attention back to the conversation.

“Look,” she said, “you messed up, right? Everybody does it, and not everybody can blame alien technology for warping their intentions. Pretty good excuse, as far as these things go.” The woman blinked at Jenny, seeming to find some of her control. “Let’s start with your name, then.”

“Anna.”

“Okay, Anna.” Jack backed up a little, giving the woman some space. “Do you remember everything? Can you tell us when this started?”

“It was a month ago, maybe? Maybe two?” She shook her head, long brown hair shaking with it. “My nephew, sister’s kid, he gave me this lamp for my birthday. Everything was fine until I turned it on.” She looked Jenny in the eyes. “You’re not telling me that a silly lamp was the alien technology you’re talking about, are you? He’s nine, there’s no way.”

“You’d be surprised at how many people have alien tech in their homes without ever realizing it.” Jack grinned. “He probably got it secondhand. We should be able to track down the source.”

“He’s not going to be in trouble, is he?” Anna looked between them, relaxing for a moment when Jenny shook her head. “What about me?”

The woman’s shoulders slumped. She looked defeated, not protective or worried as she had when she’d asked about her relative, and Jenny looked to Jack for an answer.

~O~O~O~

“You’ll be taken in for more official questioning.” Jack kept his voice calm, soothing. “It might take a few days, so you might want to let your family know you’ll be gone.”

He saw Jenny blink, surprised, and filed that away to deal with later.

“I can do that.” Anna’s voice was a little more firm this time. “What’s gonna happen next?”

He took a breath, trying to decide how much of the truth to give. He had a little more leeway than some of the full-time agents, but not a lot more. “They’ll probably want to remove most of the memories related to the alien technology.”

He didn’t add that they might not give her a choice.

He didn’t explain that he’d had his own memory wiped at least once and that it could really mess a person up. Especially if that person is then given literal lifetimes to deal with the repercussions of a missing memory.

He didn’t look at Jenny’s scowl, obvious in his peripheral vision and probably adorable if it hadn’t been aimed at him.

He did, however, watch Anna, who expelled a forceful breath and nodded.

“I’d like that.” Her voice really was calm, now. “If it’s possible, I think I’d rather not remember what I’ve done.”

“While you still remember,” Jenny said, her voice pitched ever-so-slightly differently than it normally was, something Jack wouldn’t have picked up on when they’d first met, “did we miss anyone? Is there anyone else we should try to find?”

The woman named each of the people they’d recovered, then looked down. “I suppose it could have been worse, but so many people, I took them from their homes, their lives, their families.” Anna covered her face and sobbed, just as Agent Littles returned.

“Give her a minute, would you?” said Jack, his voice meant for only Littles’ and Jenny’s ears. “She’s not gonna put up a fight.”

Littles nodded. He wasn’t Jack’s _least_ favorite agent, anyway. He’d taken on a lot of jobs Jack had wanted to avoid. “Have you rounded up all the tech?”

“We’re on it.” Jack clapped the man on the back and nodded to Jenny, who went to the basement. “No need to stick around and wait. We’ll drop it off when we’re finished, if you can leave one of the cars.”

“Will do.” The agent stood to wait awkwardly by the crying woman, and Jack joined Jenny downstairs.

~O~O~O~

Jenny had the first layer of protection dismantled from the teleportation device by the time Jack joined her.

“You really are good with this sort of thing.” Jack’s voice was warm, appreciative. “Not bad to look at doing it, either.”

“And you’re good at pretending.” Jenny worked to keep her voice neutral, but she wasn’t sure she succeeded.

“Woah.” Jack sounded defensive, so she probably had sounded a bit more accusatory than she’d intended. Over the sound of her tools on metal and plastic, she heard him sigh, then come stand next to her. “You already know I’m good at pretending, and you know a lot more of the reasons why than most. Where’s this coming from?”

“You wanted to kill her, not two hours ago, and then you ended up comforting her instead. And what was with that memory modification nonsense? If Torchwood does that, I doubt they let people decide whether they want it or not, but you very neatly made it sound like it was her choice. And she’s got a family, someone who will actually notice if she’s gone, and you’re just gonna let them take two months of her memory?”

Jenny turned her wrench harder than she’d meant to, and a piece of plastic broke off the machine. Jack put his hands on her shoulders, firm but gentle, and turned her toward himself.

“First, I was upset before I understood the situation. She was being manipulated. Of course I don’t still hold that against her, at least not fully. If I were closer to this century’s human, I’d probably have been affected, too.” He lowered his hands to her upper arms, his thumbs stroking the skin below her sleeve, and she looked into his blue eyes, fighting the urge to either punch him or snog him senseless.

She was bloody well annoyed. How could he be so calm?

“Second,” he continued in the same maddeningly reasonable voice, “yes, Torchwood modifies memories as a matter of security. It’s not something I really care for. I don’t like a lot of their practices. That’s part of why I take the jobs I do, though, to fix the things I’m able. I can’t exactly take down all of Torchwood by myself.” He grinned, but looking at him this way, looking into his eyes, she could see the cracks in his mask.

It shouldn’t make her feel better that he was just as messed up inside as she was.

But it did.

“Third, I’m sorry you were left without a family, but I promise you, if something happened to you, I’d notice. I’ve gotten pretty attached pretty fast.”

Jenny let out a breath. “Even though I’ve got a bit of a temper?”

“Believe me, Jenny--” There he went, using her name as a caress again. “--I’ve got a temper, too. I’ve just got a lot of practice at hiding it if I need to.” He smiled again, his thumbs pressing more firmly into her skin in distracting ways. “We’ll be around each other a lot, and neither of us exactly lacks passion, so there will be fights.” He raised his eyebrows. “I know of some great ways to make it up to each other, though.”

Jenny turned her focus inward, measuring the lingering adrenaline from an encounter that hadn’t been physically challenging but had provided some definite emotional tangles, then bit her lip deliberately. “Suppose I’ll be able to fix the vortex manipulator faster if you help me get some of this spare energy out first.”

His warm chuckle in response was the only encouragement she needed.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of a fast-forward here, from where we left off until after the events of the S3 finale. Bit darker than the rest of the fic. No explicit references to violence or torture, but Jack does make known much of what happened during the year that never was.

Time passed, neither quickly nor slowly, nor in a straight line. The repaired vortex manipulator helped keep things interesting, though they remained careful with it, giving it time between trips, trying to avoid having the device burn out again in an inconvenient time or place carrying more than its intended load.

They used Cardiff as their home base, working with Torchwood occasionally, often enough that Jack was able to find and secure the Doctor’s spare hand, which Jenny studied in fascinated horror until the novelty wore off.

They continued to scan for traces of the Doctor, much more effectively with the hand to use as a point of reference, but they had no luck, not identifying any visits for which Jack hadn’t already been present.

When they found out they’d just missed the Doctor at Canary Wharf, frustration was eclipsed by Jack’s grief at seeing Rose Tyler’s name on the list of the dead, and Jenny comforted him every way she knew how. She felt she might finally understand, too, a little more of that haunted look that had been in her father’s eyes when she’d been born. When Jack again said she’d have passed for their daughter, the Doctor and Rose’s, she held him tightly, her own tears of regret and loss mingling with his.

Shortly after, following an epic escape from a planet whose ruler they’d managed to piss off, they did finally damage the vortex manipulator again. Luckily, it deactivated seconds after they landed back at home; seconds before would have been lethal.

Jenny was searching for workable parts to repair the device when the Doctor landed in Cardiff, and Jack didn’t have time to get her before he caught a ride.

~O~O~O~

_Your father’s here. Got to go. Back soon as able. xo_

Jenny stared at the text. It had come through several minutes earlier; she’d figured out pretty quickly to keep her cell phone silenced when she was on covert missions.

Had he really left without her?

He had, she confirmed when she got home and found the flat empty.

It was empty for more than just the rest of that day.

Days later, the part of her that occasionally got glimpses of time, it surged suddenly, then snapped, and in an instant, everything went dark.

~O~O~O~

“Jenny? Jenny, wake up.”

Jenny felt herself lifted, carried, nestled against familiar arms and chest.

“Jack?” She opened her eyes as he placed her on their bed. She held onto him for a moment, a brief hug, then let go so she could see him properly. “You found him? The Doctor?”

Jack’s jaw was tight, his mouth pulled downward, his eyes troubled. He nodded. “Not exactly the best trip I’ve had with him.”

“Worse trip than when he left you?” Jenny took his hand, watching Jack’s emotional mask slip in and out of place.

“In a lot of ways,” he said finally, pulling her into an embrace that made it harder to breathe. Jenny returned the hug, holding him until she felt a change in his body.

It wasn’t so much that he’d relaxed, but more like he’d made up his mind about something.

“I wasn’t sure.” He pulled away, shifting to sit back against the pillows, and Jenny followed suit next to him. “I didn’t know how much to tell you.”

“It’s bad, isn’t it?” she asked. “Whatever you want to say.” It was the only time they sat like this, really, neither looking at the other, not quite touching, but each present.

Some things were just easier to tell to the ceiling.

“It started out okay, other than the dying. Not usually my first choice of activity.”

Jenny fought a smile at the fact that he could still speak in innuendo after whatever had happened. She fought the impulse to drag him into her arms again and help him forget whatever had been so bad that dying was one of the better parts of his story. She fought the desire to ask him about her father, about whether he knew she was all right, how he’d reacted.

Jack continued speaking, and Jenny didn’t have to wait long for some of her answers.

“It was the version of him you met, but he hasn’t met you, not yet. I dropped a couple of hints, mentioned blondes, but he didn’t react. I got a little closer to telling him, later, but I couldn’t…” Jenny watched the play of emotions across his face. “We weren’t alone, and I didn’t know how much I could say without causing more of a paradox than we were already dealing with.” He paused. “I’m saying this all wrong.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I caught a ride on the TARDIS, but I didn’t make it inside before the Doctor left. I held on, but I didn’t exactly arrive alive on the other end. Came to with the Doctor’s current companion after she stopped trying to save me. Scared her half to death when I woke up. Martha Jones. She was something.”

Jenny did smile some this time, remembering the woman she’d met. “It couldn’t be too long before I was born, then.”

“I’m not sure. Speaking of companions, though,” he said, meeting her eyes for a moment, a genuine smile on his lips, “Rose is still alive. She’s trapped in some parallel world, away from the Doctor, but she’s alive.” Before Jenny could share in his joy, Jack’s face shuttered again, and he looked away once more. “We met this man who turned out to be another Time Lord.”

Another Time Lord? Were there more of them, more people like her out there other than her father? Except he’d said he was the last, and he’d said that after whatever events were giving Jack such a hard time.

“He was crazy, though, the Master, and more than a little on the naughty side.” Jack had slipped into a neutral tone, detached. “He took the TARDIS. Me and the Doctor and Martha, we got back to Earth, but we landed too late. The Master, he’d been here for some time, posing as a politician.”

Pieces clicked together. “You mean Saxon? He had some big speech, but before I could watch it, I passed out.”

“That’s the guy. I’m not sure exactly what made you pass out, but I’ve got some guesses. He used a paradox machine to make it possible to destroy the Earth. He was planning on a lot more destruction than that, too, but we were able to stop him, reverse things back to that speech a year earlier.”

He’d been gone that long? “You and Martha and the Doctor?”

“Martha, the Doctor, everyone. Martha did all the footwork while the Doctor and I were on the ship.”

He’d been on the ship for a _year_ , in the hands of an enemy?

“It was probably about as bad as you’re thinking,” Jack responded to her unspoken question. “He kept me tied up, mostly, left me alone unless he got bored or wanted to try to get a reaction out of the Doctor. It’s over now, though, and I’m still here.”

Jenny took his hand, and he squeezed hers.

“What about the Doctor?” she asked.

“He’s okay, physically, at least. Didn’t handle it well at first when it was all over. The Master was a nut job, but the Doctor cared about him, so when he died...” Jack shook his head. “By time we parted ways, he seemed more like himself. He was enough of his normal self to make sure I couldn’t use the vortex manipulator.”

“He did?” Jenny felt some of her tension unwind as Jack turned to look at her. He still seemed a bit shaken, understandably given the circumstances, but he was going to be all right. She could see it.

“He only deactivated it when we split up.” Jack held up his wrist. “Repaired whatever was broken, first, so you might be able to figure out how to turn it back on.”

“I’ll try in the morning.” Jenny shifted and put her arms around him, moving slowly in case he wasn’t ready, but he once again crushed her in his embrace.

The kiss, when he pulled back enough to give her one, was desperate, needy. His hands were demanding and hungry. Jenny met his passion with her own, and they comforted each other until finally, spent, Jack drifted off to sleep.

Jenny watched him for some time. It had been days for her, probably before they’d gotten on the ship or while the Doctor was repairing the TARDIS after the events of the paradox. For him, it had been a year, and a hard year at that, one she didn’t even want to imagine.

She hadn’t been there to help him, hadn’t been able to see her father. She’d been stuck on Earth instead, fainting like the damsel in distress that she refused to be, all because… why? Because someone had messed with time lines?

Tomorrow, she’d fix the vortex manipulator. Then, she’d find something they could do, something she could do so that when she did finally meet her dad again, she would be proud of how she’d spent her time.

~O~O~O~

Jack woke up.

The first thing that he was aware of was that he hadn’t had the nightmares he’d expected.

The second was that he had a blonde in his arms, Jenny snuggled up against his chest. He could see part of her face, a face that hadn’t changed in the time he’d known her. He stroked a lock of hair behind her ear, and she didn’t move, her breathing still steady.

She must have stayed awake after he’d finally fallen asleep.

It was nice, waking up like this after falling asleep the way they had. The regular combination wasn’t something he had experienced often with flings. His previous relationships hadn’t lasted long.

With Jenny, though?

Jack could see himself spending a lifetime with her, at least.

Not that they’d likely grow old together, not in the traditional sense. The Doctor didn’t seem to ever really age, so it made sense Jenny would remain similarly young, and Jack himself didn’t seem to be aging at a noticeable rate.

Maybe after a few centuries they’d have deeper laugh lines, more signs of worry and of adventure.

Centuries.

Before the year that never was, Jack had known he adored her, of course. He didn’t have any desire to leave her or for her to leave him. It was fun living with her, fighting the bad guys, fighting with her.

Making up afterward.

But on board that ship, the thought of Jenny had helped keep him grounded. He hadn’t mentioned her, not to anyone, and he had no way of knowing how she’d spent the year.

He had a feeling, though, that she’d have ended up aboard the Valiant if she’d been alive more than a few days after the Master had made his move.

Instead of focusing on that likelihood, though, or the dozens of darker possibilities that had clearly existed, he’d thought about getting back home, about being able to see her face and the Doctor’s, both, when the two were finally able to reunite.

He’d thought about things he wanted to do, options for income and for a future, decided that maybe he’d talk to her about taking a more active role in Torchwood.

Between the two of them, with how much of a mess the agency’s remnants were in after Canary Wharf, they could probably take it over entirely with very little effort.

Jack ran his fingers along Jenny’s arm, and she stirred, finally, searching his eyes before grinning and embracing him in a way that distracted him from his thoughts quite effectively. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jenny gets a visit from an unexpected visitor. 
> 
> Notes at the end, mild spoilers for the next couple chapters, but some upcoming could upset some readers, so I want to give a head’s up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta: GoingToTheTardis

After the year that never was, Jack‘s life felt exceedingly uneventful, regardless of the fact that it was anything but.

Within a month, he and Jenny were running Torchwood. Technically, based on his seniority, he was the one in charge, but with her knack for languages and strategy, it was a pretty even split when it came down to the actual leading.

They finally moved to a bigger apartment, one that was closer to work and had room for Jenny’s tinkering. She never reminded him more of the Doctor than when she was absorbed in her workshop.

The Doctor had held onto his spare hand after he and Jack parted ways, so their detection process had gotten a little less accurate. There were a couple of close calls, times the Doctor was on Earth, that they’d been unable to reach him in time or unable to confirm that it was safe for Jenny to introduce herself.

The incident with ATMOS had been particularly frustrating for Jenny. She knew they’d be able to help, but with the Doctor already handling it and with no way to make sure they weren’t creating a paradox by showing up, Jack had made a rare veto of their getting involved.

He’d slept on the couch for a week after that, Jenny kicking him out of bed when she was done with him.

He didn’t exactly argue when she wanted to use him like that, even when they were fighting.

Despite the changes, the events, the close calls, life felt stable. Jenny was angry with him sometimes, and sometimes the reverse was true, but she was still there. They were still together. He hadn’t told her how he felt about her, but he was pretty sure she knew. Of all the ways the Doctor had changed Jack’s life, he thought he was most grateful for his accidental daughter.

~O~O~O~

Jenny shook her hand, attempting to make it stop tingling after she’d pressed her fingers just a little too far into the device she was trying to fix. It was a gadget she’d taken home from Torchwood, and she hoped to have it working by the time Jack got back to the flat. He was out getting supplies for their anniversary dinner, though she was pretty sure the dinner was supposed to be a surprise.

She picked up the shiny, metal device once more, retrieving a screwdriver and carefully prying open the compartment that should hold whatever was meant to power it. It was essentially a universal remote, only it could control a lot more than just the television.

At the sound of a loud crash, she dropped it, and it landed harmlessly on the floor before Jenny realized the noise had come from outside of her workroom, probably from the living room.

She grabbed another item she’d brought home from Torchwood, this one a weapon rather than a remote. She moved to the door and turned the knob before opening it, easing the door inward and peering out.

In the living room of her flat stood a woman in a blue jacket, her hair bleach blond, and her back toward Jenny.

“Turn around slowly,” said Jenny, aiming the laser at the stranger in her home.

Jenny fought both admiration and worry when the woman didn’t tense in the slightest. Instead, she held up her hands at shoulder level, muscles still relaxed, looking as if she were reacting to a mate holding her up with a toy pistol.

“Just looking for a friend,” she said as she finished turning toward Jenny, who had to fight back a gasp when she finally saw her face.

“Rose?” Jenny let her weapon lower slightly.

Rose blinked, her only sign of surprise. She smiled politely, leaving her hands where they were. “‘M sorry, do I know you?”

“No,” Jenny felt herself smiling, the wide grin pulling at her cheeks, and she let the weapon drop to her side. “I’ve heard all about you, though. He’s gonna be so happy you’re here!”

Jenny set the laser on a nearby table and reached for her cell phone, sending a text to Jack before she looked back up at Rose.

_Get home ASAP. We have a visitor._

Rose Tyler, who hadn’t seemed flustered up to this point, looked nervous.

“Sorry.” Jenny walked over to Rose, stopping just an arm’s length away. She watched Rose look her up and down, pausing on at least two of her hidden weapons. She was good. “I’m just excited because I didn’t think I’d ever meet you. Parallel world and all that.”

“You know about that?”

“Jack told me.” Jenny knew that in her excitement she probably sounded nearer her chronological age than the age she typically acted.

“Jack? Captain Jack Harkness?” At Jenny’s nod, relief swept across Rose’s face. “He finally came back, then?”

“How do you mean?” asked Jenny.

“If it doesn't make sense, then maybe I shouldn’t…” Rose waved absently. “I don’t want to mess with timelines any more than I have to.”

“I can sympathize with that, believe me.” Jenny gestured to the sofa. “We can sit. Jack should be here pretty soon.”

“Okay.” Rose sat perched on the edge of the sofa, ready to move if she had to.

“Is there a trick, then,” asked Jenny, making herself comfortable and trying to look non-threatening, “to figuring out where you are in someone’s timeline? I mean, I’ve time traveled, of course, but I don’t usually talk to the same people more than once.”

“I try not to say too much until I’m sure.”

“That makes sense. I mean,” Jenny paused to study Rose, “you’re older than you were in the last photo Jack showed me, so I know you’ve traveled with the Doctor.”

“You know the Doctor?” Rose’s eyes held cautious hope. “Do you travel with him?”

“No. I mean, yes, I know him, sort of, but I don’t travel with him.”

“I should have gone,” Rose said in a low voice Jenny wasn’t sure whether she was supposed to be able to hear, and her eyes focused on her hands. “I shouldn’t have stayed when I saw the Doctor wasn’t here, but...” She looked at Jenny properly, raising her voice to a normal level. “You remind me of him, some reason.”

“That makes sense, I think.” Jenny frowned. She didn’t actually know whether Rose was traveling in time now or not. Should she tell Rose who she really was if there was a chance that Rose might see the Doctor again too soon? “I’m Jenny, by the way.” That much, at least, should be safe.

“If you don’t travel with the Doctor, how do you know him?”

“Well, I’m--”

Jenny was saved trying to decide her answer when Jack came in the door. It slammed behind him, and he came down the short hallway toward the living room.

“Jenny?” he called, stopping short when he entered the room.

Rose stood and faced him, and Jenny saw the invisible mask drop from her face, like she often saw with Jack when he finally relaxed after a hard day or a challenging situation. Jenny stood, too, and froze when she saw the expression on Jack’s face.

He was guarded.

“Hello, Jack.” Rose sounded almost shy, younger than she had moments earlier.

“You look like Rose, but I have it on good authority that that’s impossible.” Jack crossed his arms.

“And the Doctor’s never been wrong about anything, has he? That’s where you heard it, right?”

Jenny frowned. Jack was right to question who the woman was. Why hadn’t she questioned it herself?

“It’s her, Jack,” Jenny said after a second, tapping her temple in explanation, feeling that pull of connection. “I know it is.”

~O~O~O~

Jenny’s instincts were usually right, and his own were screaming that this was Rose Tyler. Still, Jack was relieved when Rose interrupted.

“No, it’s all right.” She raised her eyebrows at Jack, a grin pulling at her lips. “When we first met, Jack, you tried to seduce me in mid-air.”

“Believe me, Rose, that wasn’t a real attempt.” It sounded like her. It really did. For Rose to be here, though, and seemingly back from a dimension she’d been trapped in, it fell firmly in the too-good-to-be-true category.

“All right then.” She smiled more fully, hint of tongue finally showing through. “What about when we first landed in Kyoto and you tried to bring three different men back to the TARDIS in the space of an hour, and the Doctor threatened to leave you behind, so you asked if he’d join you instead?”

Jack felt a weight lift, and he uncrossed his arms with a grin. He closed the gap between them and wrapped her in a hug, hoping he wasn’t holding her too tight. “Oh, it’s good to see you, Rosie.”

“Good to see you, too, Jack.” Her voice was muffled against his shoulder, and when Jack pulled back, he saw Jenny beaming at them. “How long have you been back on Earth? Where’s the Doctor?”

“He didn’t tell you?” Rose blinked back at him, and he gestured for her to sit. He sat next to her, and Jenny sat on the other side of him.

“Tell me what?”

“Satellite Five. He left me there.”

“I know. You were helping rebuild, or something.” She made a face. “Surprised me a bit, but I figured you’d let us know when you were ready to join us again.”

Jack clenched his teeth. He didn’t want to hide anything from Rose, but he didn’t want to sound like he was dissing the Doctor, either.

Jenny placed a hand on his back, her thumb moving back and forth along his coat. “I think the Doctor didn’t want to make you upset,” she said. “Jack is different, since then, and even the TARDIS didn’t want him around, not then.”

Rose frowned. She opened her mouth to speak, but a gentle beep sounded on her watch. “I don’t have much time left. Jack, I need to find the Doctor. It’s important.”

“I’ve been trying to find him again, myself,” he responded.

“I’m close, I know I am.” Rose was speaking quickly. “But I need something of his, something from this timeline that might have a bit of his DNA.”

Jenny’s thumb stilled. “I can help with that.” She jumped up and ran to her workshop, and Rose stood, looking at her watch again.

“How’d you find us, anyway?” Jack asked.

“I thought I’d set the scanner to lock on to Time Lord DNA. Tracing the TARDIS wasn’t getting me close enough, and since he’s the only one…”

“It was an accident, then, landing here?” Jack studied her. She didn’t seem to be carrying any weapons, but she held herself differently than she had when he’d last seen her. She was no longer a carefree teenager; she’d had some martial training.

“I was sure it was the right place.” She looked at him. “Been wrong before, though.”

Jenny came back into the room holding a small vial of blood. “Here. Thought this might be the most effective. It should be close enough to help.” She handed it to Rose, then stood by Jack. He slipped an arm around her waist, holding her close, using her strength to help him let Rose leave, to let Rose find the Doctor instead of asking whether she knew anything about his immortality.

“What’s going on?” Rose didn’t ask what was in the vial, at least, that much being obvious. She looked again at her watch.

“Rose,” Jack said after a long moment, “meet Jenny, the Doctor’s daughter.”

“I was generated,” Jenny added quickly, “so my DNA doesn’t have anyone else’s in it. It’s just his, only rearranged to make me, instead.”

“He thought she was dead,” Jack said. “We haven’t been able to find him at the right point in his timeline to correct him without causing a paradox.”

Rose nodded. “If I find him first,” she said, her hand closing protectively around the vial, “I’ll let him know you’re looking for him, if it’s safe.” She looked at her watch again. “They’ll be pulling me back any second.”

“Good luck!” Jenny’s smile was reflected in her voice, and Rose nodded.

“And Rosie?” Jack said before she could leave. “You might want to carry a gun if you’re going to be popping in to places at random.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said, her lips twitching before she vanished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so the next couple chapters are rewrites (though light on the repetition) of The Stolen Earth and Journey’s End, with Jenny’s presence. It’ll be significantly canon divergent from then on, including removal of (not death of) one of the characters. If you need more specifics, please let me know.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jenny finally sees her father for the first time in years. It doesn’t exactly go how she’d pictured.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’re working on an episode rewrite here for a couple chapters. The Stolen Earth and Journey’s End aren’t about to go down quite like how they did in the show, not with the addition of Jenny. Will go light on anything repetitive that we’ve already seen in the show; assume anything not addressed here happened how it did on screen. Because I am a Doctor/Rose shipper at heart, there will be bits of them, but this story is Jenny’s and Jack’s, so that’s where my focus is.
> 
> Beta: GoingToTheTardis

Jenny was investigating odd occurrences for Torchwood on a slow Saturday soon after Rose’s appearance and subsequent disappearance. People had been reporting ghostly noises and unusual colors emanating from one building in particular, and she’d just gained access when the earth shook.

She was flung into the railing of the stairwell, and when she felt her weight being pushed over the top, she twisted, grabbing on and letting herself go over without losing her grip. The building stopped moving almost as soon as it started, and Jenny swung back, then forward, pulling her feet in and up so that they rested on the railing between her hands, then pistoning herself to a standing position. Finally, she jumped off, landing lightly on the floor where she’d started.

“Well, that was different,” she said to herself, shaking her head. The movement had stopped, she was sure of it, but her head said otherwise, said something was still out of place.

Her mobile buzzed.

“Hello?” she answered.

“Jenny, you all right?” Jack’s voice held a note he only used when he was warring between his instincts to protect her and his knowledge that she was at least as capable as he was.

“Yep. Bit of a close call, but nothing I couldn’t handle.” Jenny glanced over the railing at the long drop down to uneven steps. “What happened, anyway?”

“We don’t know yet, but… Jenny, look outside.”

Jenny moved to the window, blinking at the darkness. “What’s…” She started to speak, but stopped as something in the sky caught her eye.

The dark sky was filled with planets and moons, arranged in a pattern that she was sure was intentional and equally sure she’d never seen.

“What’s going on here, Jack?”

“Looking into it. You should get back to headquarters if you can.”

“Will do.” Jenny moved to pull the mobile from her ear, pausing when Jack spoke again.

“Jenny?”

“What is it?”

“Be careful out there.” There was that worried note again, despite the fact that his voice was low, almost his bedroom voice.

She was still staring up at the planets in the sky when she answered. “Not sure you’re any safer where you are. The rest of the team all right?”

“Everyone’s fine. I’ll see you soon.”

Jenny hung up and put her mobile away. She left the building through the window she’d used to enter, climbing easily back to the ground. She hadn’t gotten very far before she got a text from Jack.

_Daleks. Get here as fast as you can. Faster, if possible._

He’d told her about them, though she’d never encountered the creatures herself. She put on a burst of speed. She had to slow down, though, when Daleks started arriving. She’d have loved to study them, if it were safe, but despite their cobbled-together appearance, she knew the metal-encased species was deadly and without mercy.

_Martha’s gone._

At the second text from Jack, Jenny stopped moving entirely, despite knowing a Dalek could spot her at any moment.

Martha.

She hadn’t seen a lot of the other woman at their first meeting, but she’d been able to get to know her better through Torchwood.

The Daleks had only just arrived, and already Jenny had lost one of her only friends?

She was very glad that she’d never truly renounced violence, as she didn’t particularly plan to aim for the metaphorical kneecaps of any Daleks she met.

The next time she had to pass through where one waited, instead of going around and over the building nearby, Jenny retrieved the small-but-powerful gun she favored and shot it right in the eyestalk, feeling a grim satisfaction as it whirled blindly before she finished it off. The satisfaction outweighed the stinging sensation that ran along her leg after she dodged too quickly and slammed into a brick wall.

She didn’t know whether they could beat the Daleks. She didn’t know whether she’d survive if one of them hit her. She didn’t know whether she’d come back again if she died.

What she did know, though, was that if she was going to do down, she wanted to go down fighting, with Jack by her side.

~O~O~O~

“Come on, Jenny. Where are you?” Jack muttered to himself, checking his cell phone again, his heart racing as he hesitated to activate his vortex manipulator using the codes Martha had given him.

Jenny hadn’t responded to any of his texts, not about the Daleks or about Martha--twice, since he’d had to correct his misinformation--or about the subwave network and the conference call that had eventually included her father.

He was starting to worry.

He’d been ready to tell the Doctor about her, sure that if Martha in UNIT gear hadn’t thrown him, the Time Lord knew about his daughter by now, but then the subwave network had cut out and all hell had broken loose again.

He had to leave, but Jenny was supposed to meet him here.

Jack looked at his nervous team. They were capable under normal circumstances, but they hadn’t had to handle anything quite like this before.

“I’m coming back,” he told them, fingers pausing over his vortex manipulator. “If Jenny gets here first, tell her I’m coming back.”

He had to leave, but he couldn’t just go to the Doctor and ignore the fact that Jenny was on her way to a Torchwood that was being actively attacked by Daleks. He changed the input before he could think better of it, flashing out and then back in just a few blocks from where he’d started.

He had to find Jenny first. Then he could worry about the rest of the universe.

“Jack?” The familiar voice made his heart stop for a moment.

“Jenny, oh, thank God.” He wrapped her in his arms, feeling her gun against his back as she held him just as tightly. “You weren’t answering your phone.”

“Had an incident,” she said, pulling back and gesturing at scrapes and holes in her dark jeans, evidence of a high-speed fall. “It isn’t exactly working anymore. Do we know more about what’s going on?”

“We need to get you a better phone when this is over. That’s the third one you’ve broken this year.” Jack placed a hard kiss to her lips. “Martha’s okay. She made it. The Doctor’s here, and I’ve got the manipulator set to where he most likely landed judging by the current base code.” He adjusted the manipulator back to the settings he’d had before finding Jenny. “We have to go, now.”

Jenny looked toward Torchwood headquarters, and Jack followed her gaze, knowing that whatever their team was facing, it wasn’t good.

“They’ll be okay,” he said. “There are defense protocols there that even I don’t fully understand.”

Jenny nodded, then looked back at him. “Let’s go.”

They vanished, landing in their new location, and in the moment it took for them to orient themselves, Jack was able to watch the Doctor get shot by a Dalek.

Jack reacted immediately, firing on the Dalek and making sure it wasn’t going anywhere ever again. He looked back at Jenny, who was paler than usual then ran toward the Doctor.

Rose was holding him, and they seemed oblivious to the situation around them. It was good to know some things never changed.

“Get him into the TARDIS,” he said, helping Donna and Rose get the Doctor to standing. “Quick, move!”

The women got the Doctor inside, Jack and Jenny staying behind them to make sure there were no other unpleasant surprises. He let Jenny enter the TARDIS first so that he could shut the door firmly behind them, and he raced to the jumpseat to set down his weapons.

Jenny followed him as far as the jumpseat, then gasped. She sat down suddenly, her back against the console, eyes locked on Jack.

“I’m okay,” she whispered. Jack started to move toward her, then saw that Rose and Donna were still hovering much too close to the Doctor.

He had to get them out of the line of fire. Jenny would be safe where she was.

After he pulled them away, he looked at Jenny again. Her eyes were closed, but the steady rise and fall of her shoulders told him she was still breathing. He turned his attention back to the dying Time Lord and away from the man’s daughter.

~O~O~O~

Jenny had entered the TARDIS fighting guilt for having been the reason for Jack’s delay. If he hadn’t come to get her first, maybe the Doctor wouldn’t have been shot.

When she got nearer to the console, she felt a presence in her mind, pushing its way in and overriding any other thoughts. The presence wasn’t exactly gentle, and Jenny found herself quickly unable to stand. By the time she’d sat down on the nearest bit of grating, she realized that the ship was trying to communicate with her.

How was it doing that?

She realized her eyes were locked on to Jack, who was watching her with clear concern, and she told him she was all right before closing her eyes to focus on what was going on in her head.

Pictures, sounds, and thoughts that weren’t hers started sliding across her mind, slowly at first, easing her into it. They sped up, and soon Jenny understood how the TARDIS worked, how the TARDIS was speaking to her, and that the ship preferred to be referred to as a “she” rather than an “it.”

The flashes continued, showing a planet Jenny had never heard of, people she’d never seen.

This was the information the Doctor had been talking about, the knowledge that made her a proper Time Lord rather than a copy.

She learned that those feelings of connection and inevitability she got so often were because of her time sense, which crystallized further in that moment, letting her see things more clearly, see the necessity of her presence here at this moment.

She realized her telepathy wasn’t limited to communicating only with the TARDIS, and that now that it had been activated, in a sense, she’d have a lot more open to her than she had before, though there were definite limitations and a lot of hypotheticals that made her uncomfortable.

Jenny was only vaguely aware of the conversations happening behind her, her attention focused almost entirely inward.

The influx of information finally slowed, then ended, and she took a deep breath, shaking off the spell the TARDIS had put her under, before opening her eyes and tuning back into what was happening in the room around her, hearing her father’s voice.

“It’s too late. I’m regenerating.”

A few minutes earlier, she might not have fully understood his words, but now she knew. She looked at Jack, who was watching her while he sheltered the other women with his arms, and she knew she was right.

The Doctor was dying.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continued from last chapter’s Stolen Earth, here are the adjusted events of Journey’s End. Again, assume anything not addressed happened as it did on screen, and that any dialogue you recognize is from the episode. Just one more chapter after this, unless it argues with me. That happens sometimes. Some notes at end of this chapter to avoid spoilers.
> 
> Beta: GoingToTheTardis and ScullyWolf

It was her father.

She’d finally found him, was finally aboard his ship, and he was dying right in front of her.

She didn’t even think he’d seen her as he was being carried into the TARDIS, and he hadn’t seemed to notice her huddled down behind the console.

The Doctor was dying, and Jenny knew he would come back, but she also knew he wouldn’t be the same man, not exactly, and not physically the man who’d inadvertently given life to her.

She stood, blinking her eyes against the light he was emitting, and joined Jack and the others just in time to see him channel the regeneration energy into the hand that she and Jack had taken care of for some time.

He straightened, panting. “Now then, where were we?”

Jenny looked at Jack, who blinked back at her while the Doctor whirled around, crouching down by his hand. He seemed ready to explain what had just happened, but when he looked up at them to make sure they were listening, he froze, his eyes on her.

“Jenny?”

She could feel him, ever-so-slightly, in a corner of her mind. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking or anything so specific, but she hadn’t realized how empty her mind was until it wasn’t anymore.

“Hello, Dad.” She grinned at him, trying to shake off her nerves.

Rose took a few steps to stand next to the Doctor, who took her hand automatically without taking his eyes off Jenny. Jack shuffled over to stand next to Jenny, his lack of physical contact with her distracting.

“But you were…” The Doctor seemed to be having trouble finding words. “I thought you were dead.”

“Thought _you_ were dead, a minute ago.”

He shook his head. “Biomatching receptacle. I let the regeneration energy heal me and then redirected the excess. But what about you? How are you alive? How are you _here_?”

Jenny shrugged one shoulder. “I woke up after you left. I didn’t--” She gestured at him. “--explode or anything like you did.”

“Hug her, you big idiot.” Donna raised her eyebrows, grinning almost knowingly.

The Doctor smiled, finally, and held out his free arm. “I’m glad you’re alive.”

Jenny ran in to give her father a hug, and Rose joined in almost immediately, Jack and Donna piling in seconds later. When they broke apart as the TARDIS was moved, Jenny could see the effort it took for him to stop watching her and turn his attention to Rose.

His expression both softened and intensified at the same time. “We don’t have much time. How are you here, Rose? What’s going on?”

~O~O~O~

Jack and Jenny listened while Rose explained about the stars going out, about the dimension cannon. Jack contributed what he knew from Torchwood’s scans.

Jenny leaned into his side while the Doctor’s focus was on Rose, and Jack saw the Time Lord’s eyes snap to the contact as they landed.

“DOCTOR, YOU WILL STEP FORTH OR YOU WILL DIE.” The familiar, hate-filled voice came from just outside.

“We have to go out,” the Doctor said, “because if we don’t, they’ll get in.”

When Rose and Jack objected, the Doctor explained that these Daleks were stronger than the ones they’d fought before.

The ones they’d fought before had killed him.

Jenny was still against Jack’s side, and he put his arm around her.

“Which means,” the Doctor finished up, “that we don’t have time to talk about _this_ right now.” His voice slipped into something that could only be classified as Disapproving Dad as he pointed between Jack and Jenny, and Jack swallowed hard around a chuckle. The Doctor seemed to turn his attention back to the situation around them. “All of us together, yeah?”

Everyone nodded agreement, and when Jenny pulled away, Jack’s first thought was that she was trying to give her father fewer things to worry about, but then she fell back.

“Jenny?” When he turned to face her, she looked distracted.

“I need a minute, okay?” Her eyes were scanning the exiting group.

“I’m not sure we have a minute.”

Jenny shook her head. “You go on.” She met his eyes. “I’ll be okay. Trust me. There’s just something I need to do first.”

Jack nodded, then took a breath, refusing to look behind him to see whether the Doctor was watching, and pressed a firm kiss to her lips. He turned and left before he could change his mind, and he was just outside the TARDIS when he heard Jenny again.

“Donna, wait here a minute.”

What was she doing, and why did she need Donna?

The dynamics felt off with Jenny there, with so much unspoken and no time to work through it. Jack could read the guilt in the Doctor’s eyes fighting with the relief of both daughter and Rose finding him, combined with the particular brand of hatred and anger that the Doctor seemed to reserve for the Daleks. Rose had been quieter than he remembered, the Doctor a little more contained.

He didn’t know Donna yet, but he’d heard about her from Jenny. He got the impression that Donna, too, was typically less reserved, her attention being torn between the two women, plus occasional appreciative glances at Jack himself.

Just because he was with Jenny didn’t mean he was oblivious to getting checked out.

Still, even though Jenny’s presence had strained the situation some, Jack was glad she was there, and her staying in the TARDIS didn’t feel right.

“Jenny, Donna, you’re no safer in there,” the Doctor called.

The TARDIS door slammed shut, a Jack felt a jolt of panic. Closer to the doors, he reached them before the Doctor.

“Jenny, what are you doing?” he asked.

“We didn’t do anything,” Donna called back. “Oi, let us out!”

When the Dalek said it was going to destroy the TARDIS, the women inside, Jack beat frantically at the door. “Jenny, do something!”

Inside the TARDIS, there was silence, at least as far as Jack could tell from outside the doors.

He jumped back as the TARDIS dropped through a hole in the floor.

“It’ll be torn apart!” The Doctor was almost frantic, furious, emotions Jack could feel pretty strongly himself.

“Doctor, you have to do something!” Jack told him.

“They’re still in there,” chimed Rose.

“Let them go,” Jack said, turning his attention to the Dalek.

“THE FEMALES AND THE TARDIS WILL PERISH TOGETHER. OBSERVE.”

“Take me instead of them,” said the Doctor. “I don’t care what you do to me, just get them out of there!”

Jack could only watch as the TARDIS burned.

He’d lost people before, more than he cared to count, but he couldn’t lose Jenny. He had to do something, anything.

When the TARDIS disappeared entirely, he snapped, shooting at the Dalek. He was immediately rewarded with a familiar jolt of pain that definitely ranked pretty high on his worst-ways-to-go list, then seconds of blissful nothingness.

~O~O~O~

Jenny whirled around the console, aware that Donna was watching her, bemused.

She’d gotten them to safety, and Donna helped her put out the literal fires before she started staring.

“What is it?” Jenny asked, finally.

“You look just like the Doctor when you do that, the spinning and mashing buttons. How do you even know how to fly the TARDIS? Never been in here before, have you?”

Jenny grinned. “She told me what to do.”

“What, the ship did?”

“Of course. Gonna need your help, though, for the next bit.” Jenny turned her attention from the console toward Donna, nodding decisively.

“Why me, though? Any one of them you could’ve asked to help, except maybe the Doctor. Why me?”

“You’re the only one who will be able to make this work. I saw it, with the TARDIS’s help.” She patted a coral strut fondly. The ship had helped her hone her time sense significantly, and she’d given her a few nudges about what to do, just enough that Jenny had been certain she needed to stay behind, with Donna to help. Now that she knew more about what was going on than she had when that impulse struck her, she had some ideas.

“You’re having me on, aren’t you?”

Jenny tilted her head to the side. “No, I’m not. You’re meant to be here. You’re going to help save the day.”

“I’m just a temp from Chiswick.”

Donna was so sure that she couldn’t be that important, but Jenny hadn’t needed the TARDIS to enhance her abilities before she know how special the woman was. She stepped forward and pulled her into a hug.

“Come on,” said Jenny. “We need to figure out what, exactly, we’re up against.”

The TARDIS shook, and she studied the monitor, watching as power was gathered through all the planets, harnessed and focused into an area of the Crucible.

“Oh, that is not good,” Jenny said as she pieced together what was happening.

“What is it?” asked Donna. Jenny couldn’t answer immediately. “Jenny, what does it do?”

“He concentrated it this time, but if he hadn’t, if he sent it out into the universe…” She continued staring at the screen. “All of existence, not just this universe but every dimension, it would cease to exist.”

“The Doctor can stop it, right?”

Jenny shook her head. “Not from where he is, not being watched.” Jenny looked at Donna and grinned. “Us, though, we can make sure this doesn’t happen.”

They gathered the bits and pieces needed to disable the Daleks, using Davros’ own DNA against them.

“We don’t have enough time for me to explain this as well as I should,” said Jenny when it was finished. “I think I can give you the information you’ll need, but I’ve never done this before. The TARDIS told me how it works, but I haven’t tried.”

“Tried what?” asked Donna.

Jenny brought her hands to Donna’s temples. “Trust me?”

~O~O~O~

When Jack heard the TARDIS materializing, he grinned. He should’ve known from that start that Jenny would survive, that she’d find a way to show up and save the day, just in the nick of time.

The Doctor watched, more concern than surprise in his posture. Of course, like Davros had said, he could feel the TARDIS, so he must have known it hadn’t been destroyed.

Martha, Jackie, Mickey, Sarah Jane, and Rose all watched expectantly.

“Yes!” Jack said, seeing Jenny appear in the doorway, followed immediately by worry as she ran toward Davros, only to be shot, weapon knocked out of her hand.

“Jenny!” Donna joined her, picking up the weapon. “I’ve got it! Where’s the--”

Donna was cut short as she, too, was hit by Davros, landing out of sight.

Jenny, he was glad to see, seemed fine, other than being in pain and imprisoned.

When the countdown began, he took Martha’s hand, his eyes locking onto Jenny.

At the interruption in the last second of it, Jack’s attention was drawn, along with everyone else’s, to Donna.

“Closing all Z-Neutrino relay loops using an internalised synchronous back-feed reversal loop? That button there!”

Chaos erupted, and Donna seemed equally amused at both the Doctor’s surprise and the Daleks’.

“Jenny gave me a bit of a download,” she said finally. “I’ve got all information you lot have,” she explained, looking at Jenny and the Doctor, “only I’m human and know how to use it.”

She released them from their imprisonment and continued cheerfully taunting the non-humans. The Doctor and Jenny both seemed proud of her, as they should be.

The Daleks were less amused.

The fight that ensued was playful, almost comical, disabled Daleks sliding across the room while Jenny, the Doctor, and Donna worked at the controls, sending the planets to where they belonged until, of course, the equipment malfunctioned with just Earth remaining.

The Doctor ran into the TARDIS, and Jenny stilled, radiating uncertainty. Jack joined her, his gun still pointed at the Daleks, just in case.

“I can destroy them,” Jenny said. “I can keep these creatures from regrouping and trying to wipe out the universe.”

“Do it.” Jack’s voice was steady. It would mean a high death toll, but better the Daleks than the innocents who would suffer otherwise.

Jenny looked at him, then at the TARDIS where her father was, then at the Dalek who was muttering gleefully about the prophecy needing to be fulfilled. She looked around the group at the rest of the Doctor’s companions.

“Do it,” Rose echoed, and the rest nodded, one by one.

Jenny held her breath and made the Daleks explode.

“What have you done?” The Doctor was furious, but he got a good look at his daughter’s face and stopped. “Everyone in the TARDIS.”

~O~O~O~

Flying the TARDIS with her father, Jack, and the rest of the group was a thrilling experience that Jenny wouldn’t soon forget. It helped her keep her mind off what she’d done, off her father’s disapproval.

She knew she shouldn’t care quite as much as she did. He was her father biologically, but he’d not had much of a chance to prove himself one, otherwise. She barely knew him, and she knew she’d done what she had to.

After returning the Earth to where it belonged, they dropped off Sarah Jane, Mickey, and Martha, then landed on a beach in another dimension.

Rose tensed, her eyes moving to the Doctor. Jenny watched, not sure what was going on. After a long moment during which it felt like everyone was holding their breath, the Doctor shoved his hands in his pockets and spoke.

“You’re sure you want to stay with me?”

“Forever,” was Rose’s immediate answer, and the Doctor watched her for what felt like an eternity before he grinned and opened his arms. Rose rushed into them, crushing her lips to his.

Jenny grinned, too, leaning back into Jack, who wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin atop her head.

After the couple finally broke apart, Rose, Jackie, Donna, and the Doctor left the TARDIS, the Doctor shooting a warning glance at Jack. He and Jenny stayed behind; she wasn’t really up for watching Rose say a tearful goodbye to her mother. She could read the information the TARDIS was displaying, too, and knew they wouldn’t be very long, not with the walls sealing up again.

Jenny turned toward Jack, resting her face against his chest. “It’s been an eventful day,” he said. “You going to be okay?”

“I will be,” said Jenny, pulling back slightly. “I’m glad you’re here, you know.”

“Me, too.” Jack’s blue eyes sparkled down at Jenny, and she gave in to her impulse to kiss him.

She was still kissing him when the others came back in, superior hearing not nearly as impressive with Jack’s hand against the skin of her waist and his tongue in her mouth.

“Stop it. Just stop.” The Doctor’s voice was almost a whine. When Jenny pulled away and looked toward him, she saw he looked a little nauseated. Rose grinned through lingering tears, and Donna smirked. “I think,” he continued once he was back at the controls and had started the sequence for them to leave, “we’ve got a few things we need to catch up on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, I adore Tentoo. I do. However, 1) this story told me Tentoo wasn’t going to fit, and 2) I like Rose and Ten having their happy ending, too, and Jenny having a second “parent,” or at least someone to soften the Doctor, and the Doctor not being distracted by Rose being gone and going all self-destruct mode. So, no Tentoo, here, but I don’t love him any less ;)


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, dear readers, for sticking with me! I’m so sorry for the delay on this chapter; life struck with a vengeance. I appreciate so very much the response I’ve gotten on this, all the love for this wonderful pairing that there should be more of :)
> 
> Beta: GoingToTheTardis

_“Stop it. Just stop.” The Doctor’s voice was almost a whine. When Jenny pulled away and looked toward him, she saw he looked a little nauseated. Rose grinned through lingering tears, and Donna smirked. “I think,” he continued once he was back at the controls and had started the sequence for them to leave, “we’ve got a few things we need to catch up on.”_

Jenny helped him maneuver the TARDIS back into the vortex in the proper dimension, and she grinned at the smooth transition they managed; she was pretty sure that if it weren’t for an extra sense in her mind, an almost unnoticeable shift from one set of timelines to another, she wouldn’t have even known when they passed through. The Doctor met her gaze and returned her smile, and she felt the others watching them.

The Doctor broke their stare first, turning his attention from his daughter and from the TARDIS, now parked safely in the vortex of the proper dimension, to Rose. “All right?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her.

“Yeah,” she murmured, returning the hug briefly before pulling away. “I’ll miss them, but I found you, yeah? And who knows, maybe…” Rose looked at Jenny, then at Jack and Donna, then back at the Doctor. “If there’s a way to see my family again, we’ll find it.” She put her hand on his chest. “We’ll talk later, all right? You need to talk with Jenny, and I think it’s been days since I slept.”

“Yeah,” agreed Donna. “I’m going to let you lot talk.” She looked at Jenny. “This extra information you gave me, is it going to last?”

“Some of it,” she answered. “What you might remember if you watched a film with all that in it. You’re brilliant, you know, so it might be more than most.”

Donna shook her head and smiled. She really still didn’t seem to believe it, not fully. Jenny hoped that they could keep improving on the woman’s opinion of herself.

Well, if they were all going to be traveling together, that is, since it would be hard for Jenny to change things if she wasn’t there.

The Doctor gave Rose a kiss goodbye that managed to be short without taking anything for granted. “No getting upset with Jenny about finishing off the Daleks,” Rose told him firmly, “not unless you get upset with me for doing it last time, _with_ the TARDIS’s help, at that.” She grinned at the Doctor, a funny, lopsided smile with her tongue at her teeth, ran a hand down his arm, and stepped away. After he nodded, she and Donna linked arms and left.

“It needed to be done, Doc,” Jack said into the silence, coming to stand beside Jenny, not quite touching her, but close enough that she could almost feel him.

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair and turned so he could lean against the console but still see Jack and Jenny. “Frankly, it’s not what I wanted to talk about first. Maybe not at all. It’s…” He waved, then focused again on Jenny. “You should never destroy life lightly.”

“But I didn’t--” Jenny started.

The Doctor held up a hand. “I know. That’s all I needed to say about it. Now. Do you know how you came back to life? You said you didn’t regenerate.”

“I’m not sure.” Jenny felt Jack watching her as she answered. “I was hoping maybe you could give me some answers. The TARDIS told me a lot as soon as we met,” Jenny said, stroking a bit of the console, “but nothing that would answer that.”

“We can take you to the infirmary, see if we can find anything, but it may’ve had something to do with the terraformation energy.” The Doctor was frowning as he thought. His eyes flicked to Jack. “And how did my daughter end up with _Jack_? I didn’t realize you were…” He gestured before continuing. “...together, at first. Unless you make a habit of snogging near strangers,” he continued, the tilt of his head suggesting he wouldn’t be entirely repulsed by this possibility, “but a few other things make more sense if you were already acquainted.”

“We’ve lived together for years, Dad,” Jenny answered, knowing she sounded a little annoyed. She reached for Jack’s hand, holding it firmly to make up for his hesitation.

~O~O~O~

Jenny held his hand so tightly it hurt.

He didn’t care.

It had been so long since he was truly a con man, but he still didn’t really think of himself as _good_ , and here she was, this wonderful woman, standing up for him to her father.

Her 900-year-old, alien father.

He fought the desire to close his eyes against the Doctor’s weighing stare.

“You’ve lived with him for years, hmm?” The Doctor’s voice was neutral, calm.

Jack swallowed.

“Yeah, I have. Because we decided to stick together, and we have, and I’m not gonna change that.”

He looked at Jenny, who was much easier to watch than her father. Her eyes flashed, her eyebrows were raised ever-so-slightly, and her shoulders were back. She didn’t look angry so much as sure, passionate.

Suddenly he was fighting a whole lot more than self-doubt and fear, but at least lust was something he was used to dealing with, especially around Jenny.

He turned his attention back toward the Doctor when he heard the man sigh.

“Doesn’t it make you feel sick to be around him?”

“Hey, right here, Doc,” said Jack, finally, and Jenny squeezed his hand, then let her grip relax to a normal hold.

“It got easier with practice,” said Jenny. “I know you know that. I don’t even notice it anymore.”

“You knew, Jack? Last time?” The Doctor’s voice was low again, guarded.

Jack nodded. “Things were already enough of a mess, couldn’t risk telling you something that would cause another paradox.”

The Doctor sniffed, nodded and looked away for a few seconds before looking back toward his daughter.

Instead of feeling like he was helping explain, Jack suddenly felt like he was intruding.

“I’m gonna go join the other humans,” he said, “see about finding something to eat, maybe see if the TARDIS has a bed for me.”

“She said to look where your room used to be,” said Jenny, sounding amused. “She made it bigger and added a few things I might like.”

Jack chuckled. “Thanks,” he aimed at the console room in general, and he was rewarded with a hum. With a glance at the Doctor’s faint scowl, Jack pressed a kiss to Jenny’s cheek and left.

~O~O~O~

“He’s really the one you want? Out of anyone in the universe?” At least the Doctor had waited until Jack was out of earshot.

“You know he’s not nearly as bad as you’re making him sound, and I wish you’d stop it. He’s a good man.”

“I know.” The Doctor fell quiet again. There were times during the day that Jenny had seen him manic, babbling. Now, he seemed uncertain, and it was several seconds before he spoke. “I should’ve known that you were alive.”

“How could you have?”

He tapped his temple. “I can feel you, now. I know you weren’t in there before, but it means you could’ve been. If I hadn’t been so thick, If I’d just… If I’d treated you like my daughter from the first instead of being an idiot, and I _can_ be an idiot, brilliant as I am, we might’ve made that connection, and then I would’ve known.”

“But you didn’t.” Jenny moved closer to him. “And I understand. There’s so much that I didn’t know, that I _couldn’t_ know. I was a soldier, and I’d hardly lived, and no, I didn’t deserve to be dismissed, and I didn’t deserve to be left behind.” She took a breath. “But you accepted me, before I died, and you wouldn’t have left me if you’d known.”

“No, I wouldn’t have.” He said it firmly, and she wasn’t sure which one of them he was trying to reassure.

“What about now?” asked Jenny. “Do you want me to stay?”

“If you want.” He looked down at his trainers, then up again, a thoughtful look on his face. “Although, the TARDIS proposes an alternative of sorts.”

“Yeah?” Was he looking for an excuse to get rid of her already? Though she’d understand, on some level, if he wanted time alone with Rose.

“You should stay with us for a bit, and we’ll travel together, all of us, but then, _then_!” He was grinning, and he straightened and started moving around the console. “Did the TARDIS tell you how she was grown?”

“She showed me, yes.” Jenny gasped when the Doctor produced a TARDIS coral. “Fantastic,” she breathed.

“Oh, yes.” The Doctor handed it to her. “Takes ages to grow, but you’ve got time. You and Jack both.” To his credit, the Doctor barely made a face.

“Won’t take that long.” Donna’s voice came from the hall as the entered the console room. “Sorry, I had to…” Donna held her hands up near her ears, fingers splayed. “I’ve got all this information, and it was telling me to come back. You just need the right kind of energy to speed it up. What about that?” She pointed at the jar holding the Doctor’s severed hand and his excess regeneration energy.

“Told you you were brilliant,” Jenny told her, and the trio discussed the details until Donna needed to sleep and the Doctor needed to join his Rose.

~O~O~O~

Jack woke to Jenny wrapping herself around him in thoroughly distracting ways.

Not that he could think of ways in which that _wouldn’t_ be distracting.

“How’d the rest of your talk go? Am I allowed to live?” Jack rolled over to face her, proceeding to behave in ways that would probably ruin any leniency the Doctor had given him.

“Mmm, yeah, you are. He’s kicking us out, though, sort of.”

Jack paused. Jenny didn’t seem nearly as upset as he would expect at her father dismissing her as soon as they’d found each other. “Are we at least officially allowed to use the vortex manipulator?”

“No.” She nibbled his neck, and he considered leaving the conversation for later. “But he did give us a TARDIS.”

Jack sat up. “Seriously?” He loved that Jenny could still look at him the way she did when the covers fell off him.

“Yeah. Well, sort of. It isn’t grown yet.” Jenny reached over to the nightstand and picked up a rather unimpressive-looking lump. “It will be, though, and then we can go anywhere, anywhen we want, and we can meet up with Dad and Rose and Donna when we want, too.”

“And Torchwood?”

“I thought maybe we could take them with us sometimes, but normally, we’ll just make certain we’re back in time for work.” She winked at him. “It _is_ a time machine, you know, and should be a bit more reliable than your vortex manipulator was.”

“So you and me, wherever we want, whenever we want, whatever we want, for as long as we want.” Jack took her hand.

“Which is likely to be for a very long time, what with you not really dying and me not really aging.”

“Jenny, I have exactly zero problem with that.”

She grinned at him, then looked down at herself. “I think you might have a problem with all these clothes, though.”

“I can fix that.”

And if the couple was kicked off the TARDIS a couple days earlier than planned because he fixed that problem a little too frequently, neither of them minded too terribly.


End file.
